The Colonel & Doctor Carter
by J loves JS
Summary: Lexi Carter is Samantha Carter's niece. After the death of Dr. Heightmeyer, Sam brings Lexi to Atlantis to be the new psychiatrist. After meeting Colonel Sheppard, a relationship that shouldn't happen does. Takes place during season 4.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Stargate Atlantis, the dialogue from the show or the characters, they are owned by MGM. Dr. Alexa (Lexi) Carter is my own original character. I have tried to research the medical jargon as much as possible, so if any of it is incorrect, I apologize.

© Jennifer Dreyer, 2009-2010

**Chap. 1:**

* * *

Colonel Samantha Carter is sitting at her desk in the city of Atlantis, trying to get through the unbelievable amount of paperwork that never seems to dissipate. Pushing aside her tablet computer and taking a look at the clock on her desk, she sighs, as she sees that it's 0100 Atlantis Mean time. Rubbing her eyes and standing up, she walks out of her office, through the Control room, which at this moment is blissfully quiet, to the outside balcony. Feeling how chilly it is, she wraps her jacket, tightly around her and leaning up against the railing, looking out at the two moons, she remembers the recent events that led up to the death of Doctor Kate Heightmeyer.

She had only been in charge of the expedition for a little over a month when the situation had occurred. John and the rest of his team had come back from a mission to M3X-387, which to the best of anyone's knowledge had nothing written about it in the Ancient database. While on the planet, John had touched an unknown crystal and had been zapped by it. After receiving a large enough shock to knock him to his feet, he decided that he had had enough of the planet and would have a science team come back to check things out further. When the team got back, Doctor Keller had cleared everyone, although she had run a few extra tests on John, just to make sure the crystal hadn't done any damage. Satisfied that he was okay, she had let Carter know that he was in good health and that there was no need for any concern. Of course after eleven years of working for the SGC, Carter was always a little bit on edge, knowing that at any moment something could go wrong. And of course, something did go wrong. By the end of the whole ordeal, the expedition had lost Doctor Heightmeyer and had almost lost McKay and John.

Unfortunately, she now had to choose a new head psychiatrist for the base. She knew that Atlantis was still reeling from Doctor Heightmeyer's death, as well as the loss of Doctor Weir. So the sooner she picked someone the better and in the back of her mind, she knew that whomever she did chose would have to be approved by the IOA.

The first person she thought of, believe it or not, was her niece. Mark's daughter, Alexa Elizabeth, Lexi for short, had taken after her aunt in the genius department, except that instead of going into astrophysics and the Air Force, she had decided to become a medical doctor, a psychiatrist no less. Unlike her aunt, but just like John and General O'Neill, Lexi had the ancient gene, which had come as a bit of a welcome surprise.

Smiling to herself, she remembers how hard it had been to convince Mark to allow his then twenty two year old daughter to join her at the SGC. But, she and Lexi had gotten very close over the years and finally, after a lot of tandem cajoling, Mark had given his blessing.

Once Lexi arrived at the SGC, she had easily made friends and her ability to separate her work life, from her personal life led to her being well liked and respected among the civilian and military personnel on the base. Therefore, Carter wasn't surprised when Lexi began hanging out with her group of friends, including her teammates on SG-1. She was surprised though that Lexi had no problems transitioning into the life of secrets that came with working for the Stargate program, and in regards to her work, she quickly became the one psychiatrist on base that everyone wanted to talk to.

"Hey."

Coming back to the present and looking over her shoulder, she smiles, "hey back." and looking down at her watch, "John, what're you doing up? I thought Lorne had the watch tonight."

"He does, but I couldn't sleep. So what's got you up so late?"

"Well, I was buried under paperwork and needed a break. So I thought I'd come out and get some air." and turning her head to really look at him, her breath catches in her chest, "are you okay?"

Shrugging, "yeah, I'm good." and without looking at her, "anyways, where were you just then?"

Still watching him with concern, "ah, I was thinking about who I'm gonna get to fill Heightmeyer's position." and not missing the flash of pain crossing his face at the mention of Doctor Heightmeyer, "John, Kate's death wasn't your fault. You can't control everything."

Turning to look at her, a weak smile flitting across his lips, "yeah, I know." and turning to head for the door, "I'm gonna go finish my run and hit the sac. I'll see you tomorrow at the briefing."

Smiling, "sleep tight, John."

Stopping at the door, looking over his shoulder, "night, Sam."

Watching him leave, it hits her that he probably won't be getting a good nights sleep, _and with the amount of things I've got on my plate right now, I'm not gonna get any sleep either._

However, as she walks back into the Control room, the fatigue that has been pulling at her since she had walked onto the balcony finally convinces her that the paperwork and her choice for Heightmeyer's replacement can wait until morning.

xxxx

The following morning at 0830, Carter is sitting in the conference room drinking a large cup of coffee and reading over a report from the botany department. Glancing at her watch and seeing that she still has about half an hour until everyone is due to show up, she leans back in her chair and rubs her eyes. Stretching out her neck and shoulders, she realizes that she had gotten five hours of sleep the previous night, which is more than she has been able to get since arriving on Atlantis.

_Snap out of it Sam_, she admonishes herself and deciding that she might as well do something useful while she waits for everyone to show up, she proceeds to type up her recommendation to the IOA, to have Lexi brought to Atlantis.

About ten minutes later, Ronon and Teyla show up, chatting about the trip that they are going to be making to New Athos the following day. Teyla wishes her a good morning and the two of them take up seats on her right hand side and continue talking. A few minutes later, McKay and Keller show up. Keller has her eyes glued to her tablet and McKay is muttering something about, "these people are so damn primitive. Why are we going there anyway?" As he and Keller sit down, she finishes her recommendation and joins in on the conversation.

"Colonel Carter, I would like to take the medical supplies to New Athos tomorrow and Ronon has said that he would like to accompany me."

"That's fine, Teyla" and looking at Keller, "I don't see that being a problem, do you Dr. Keller?"

"No problem at all Teyla. Everything is all set and will be waiting for you."

The conversation takes up the last ten minutes and as it comes and goes, with no sign of John, the group quiets down and starts looking towards the door, as if expecting him to saunter through it at any moment. When he doesn't show up after twenty minutes, Carter taps the radio in her ear, sharing looks of concern with everyone in the conference room.

"Colonel Sheppard, this is Colonel Carter, come in please."

She waits a couple of minutes and just as she is about to call him again, his voice comes over the radio.

"Sheppard here. I'll be there in five."

The radio link closed, Carter smiles slightly at everyone in the room, as the memory of how bad he had looked the previous night, pops up in her minds eye, "well, I guess we'll wait until he gets here."

Five minutes later, John walks through the door and slumps down in the chair next to her. Quickly glancing at him, he grimaces back at her and looking at everyone else, the meeting gets under way and within an hour it is over.

As everyone is filing out of the room, she notices that she isn't the only one hanging back. John is still sitting in his chair next to her, trying to rub the fatigue that he is obviously feeling out of his neck and shoulders. During the meeting he had been quiet, up until the point where he volunteered to take the supplies to the research base. However, just by looking at him now she can tell that if he doesn't get a full nights sleep, he won't be in any shape for anything, let alone flying.

"John, maybe you should take the rest of the day off and get some sleep."

"Are you making that an order Colonel, or a suggestion?" he asks, swiveling in his chair so that he can look at her straight on.

"I'll make it an order if I have to, Colonel. But, I'd rather you take it as a suggestion. You look like you've been hit by a truck. And if you even want me to think about allowing you to fly the resupply mission, it'd be a good idea if you listen to me."

Staring at her, _I am really beat, but._ _Idiot! You're dead on your feet and if you need proof of that, you slept through you're alarm._ and not missing the fact that she is watching him closely, "you know what Sam, I think I will take it as a suggestion."

Smiling at him, "good. I'm glad."

Getting up and returning her smile, "I think I might even go see if Keller can give me something to help knock me out."

Also getting up and walking with him out of the conference room, "that sounds like a great idea. Sleep tight."

Reaching the stairs down to the Gate room, walking down them, "thanks Sam."

She watches him head down the stairs and it takes her mind a second to realize that he probably won't go to see Keller and with that thought, she radios the doctor.

"Dr. Keller this is Colonel Carter, come in please."

"Yes, Colonel, what can I do for you?"

"Colonel Sheppard should be on his way down to you. If he doesn't show, I'd like you to go check on him and report back to me."

"Does this have anything to do with how he looked at the briefing?"

"Yeah. I think a good nights sleep would do him some good. To be quite honest, I don't think he's been sleeping well, since Kate died."

"Well, Colonel, welcome to the wonderful world of John Sheppard. He most likely won't come to see me, as he hates to take anything more powerful than Tylenol or Motrin. But yes, if he doesn't show up within the next few minutes, I'll go check on him. He won't be happy about it, but well that's Sheppard for you."

"Thanks Jennifer. I just want to make sure he's fit for duty. Carter out." and turning off her radio, she goes on about the rest of her duties, confident that Keller will let her know if John decided not to see her.

xxxx

John left the control tower, heading for his quarters. Even though he had told Carter that he would see Keller, he really didn't mean it. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but the fact that Carter said that she would make it an order, had actually felt really good.

He smiles to himself, remembering how Elizabeth had shown the same type of concern and annoyance towards him. But thinking about Elizabeth, dredges up all of the painful images that he thought he had come to terms with and by the time he reaches his quarters, all he wants to do is get into bed and curl up into a ball.

Swiping his way into them and heading over to the dresser, he strips down to his t-shirt and boxers and after mentally dimming the lights he climbs into the bed. Closing his eyes, he is just about to drift off into an uneasy sleep, when the door chime goes off.

Sitting up, "hang on a sec." he shouts, as he rubs his hands over his face and through his hair. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed and standing up, he walks over to the desk chair and pulls on the pair of sweats that he had thrown over it the night before, after his run.

The door chimes again and sighing, "I'll be right there." he shouts again, as he heads over to it. Reaching it, he swipes the control panel, not surprised to see Keller standing in front of him with a bemused expression on her face.

"Ah Colonel. I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

"No. I wasn't sleeping yet." and leaning against the doorframe, to keep himself standing, "what brings you by?"

"Um, Colonel Carter radioed and mentioned that you might come down to see me and when you didn't show up, I got worried."

Crossing his arms across his chest and shrugging, "I meant to. But I figured I'd just hit the sac instead."

Scanning her eyes over him, "John, I know you hate taking stuff, but you look horrible. Would you please let me give you something?"

Smirking, "is that your professional medical opinion, or are you just trying to be nice?"

Rolling her eyes and sighing, "that's my medical opinion, as well as, you are a friend of mine and look like hell warmed over and should sleep a month straight, opinion."

Accepting the pill bottle she is holding out to him, "so what? Do I take these and then just sleep?"

"Yes and being that you have more than eight hours to sleep, I would suggest taking them now. They take effect pretty quickly."

"And they won't knock me out for more than a day?" he asks, concern lacing his voice.

"Well, they really are only effective for at most ten hours, so you won't sleep longer than that. However, if you do sleep longer, it's only because your body needs it." and grinning at him, "but if it helps, I'll come by and throw a bucket of cold water over you tomorrow morning, just to make sure."

Chuckling, he thanks her for the pills and as the doors slide shut, he heads over to the mini fridge. Grabbing a water bottle and downing the pills, _sleep, this should be really great_. Lying down, he is out cold within five minutes, sleeping straight through till the following morning.

xxxx

"Colonel Carter this is Dr. Keller."

"I'm here doctor. What's up?"

"Colonel, I wanted to let you know that I just checked on Colonel Sheppard. He's gonna be just fine."

"Thanks, Jennifer. That's great news." and as the radio link closes, Carter smiles to herself, knowing that she did the right thing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chap. 2:

* * *

**

John is lying on his bed, reading a magazine. Well he's not really reading it as much as trying to use it to keep his mind off of the past couple of days.

Everything had gone to hell and a hand basket and if he let himself think about it, his head would start to pound. It all started when Jeannie Miller was abducted and the SGC had contacted McKay to let him know. He came to John, asking for his help in finding her and having agreed to do so, he, Ronon and McKay all headed back to Earth.

During their search, McKay was taken as well, but eventually John and Ronon found him and Jeannie. Only things are never that easy and the joy of finding them, was quickly dashed when they found out that Jeannie had been infected with nanites. Realizing that he was not going to be able to re-program the nanites on his own, McKay convinced John to bring Todd to Earth. Not having fed in a while, Todd collapsed and with Todd out of commission, McKay offered himself up as food. John denied him the option. Then when all seemed lost, Henry Wallace agreed to let himself be fed upon, so that Todd could help save Jeannie's life.

_Yep this life is anything but boring_, and just as he's about to go back and try reading the magazine again, he looks up at the sound of the doors opening to his quarters, "hey!"

Walking into the room, "hey."

Watching McKay walk over to the couch, "look who's back. How's the family?"

Sitting down on the couch next to John's bed, "uh, great. Bought 'em a Prius."

"Guilt."

"Yeah." shooting John an awkward look, "listen, I can't believe what you did."

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"You talked Wallace into sacrificing himself."

"No, I didn't."

"Well, then, how did he?"

"I..." shutting the magazine John gazes into the distance for a second, "I presented a situation. He volunteered."

"Still, you talked a man into killing himself."

Focusing on McKay, "he wanted to make things right. I merely, uh..."

"...presented the situation."

"Yeah."

"Thanks."

After a couple of uncomfortable seconds pass between them, McKay stands up and waves his hand at the door.

"Wanna get something to eat?

"Sure."

John gets up from his bed and they walk out of the room, the door closing behind them.

"Say, you and I are about even when it comes to looks, right?"

"Who's been lying to you?"

"No I'm serious."

"I am too. Who's been lying to you? And why do you want to know?"

"Oh, it's just something Jeannie said to me back on Earth."

Curiosity getting the better of him, "what did she say?"

"She commented that I'm, uh, well." and seeing John staring at him expectantly, "she said I was no John Sheppard."

Walking into the mess, John feels himself blushing a little as the thought of McKay's sister considering him good-looking leaves him speechless. Not knowing how to respond to the comment, he glances around the mess trying to come up with something. However, he stops dead in his tracks as his eyes come to rest on two people in particular.

Arm shooting out to stop McKay from going any further, "McKay, who is that with Colonel Carter?"

Seeing the look on his face and following his pointing hand, McKay smiles as he sees Carter waving them over. He leads John over to the table and as they reach it, John watches as Carter continues to laugh, obviously trying to stop and just as he is about to say something, the person who is causing Carter to laugh so hard, stands up and hugs McKay.

Getting her laughter under control, "Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, let me introduce you to my niece and the newly minted head psychiatrist for the Atlantis expedition, Dr. Alexa Carter."

At this, John shoots McKay a stunned look. But McKay is desperately trying not to laugh at the look on his face, so all he can do is shrug.

Holding out her hand for him to take, "Colonel Sheppard, it's really great to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you." Lexi says, smiling.

Taking her hand in his, "well Dr. Carter, that's very kind of you to say." and with a hurt look in Carter and McKay's direction and letting go of her hand, "I can't say that I've heard anything about you."

"John, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner that she was coming. But as you well know it's been crazy the past couple of days. And to tell you the truth, I was completely surprised when she walked through the Gate with McKay. She wasn't due for another three weeks, when the Apollo is scheduled to arrive."

"Sam, you know I love surprises and I figured showing up early would be a really good one." and looking at John, "I'm not surprised that Sam hasn't mentioned me before. It's not like her to talk about family." and catching the look that John is sending McKay's way, "and don't blame Rodney, Colonel. The only reason he knows me is because I've been at the SGC for four years and well, I kind of know everyone who Sam has worked with there."

At this John smiles and turning his head to say something to McKay, he sees that he's not there anymore, "so, Dr. Carter, I take it that you two have been catching up?"

Smiling at him, "yes we have and please call me Lexi. I hate being called Dr. Carter."

Nodding and looking at Carter, "I'm assuming that there was some good gossip?"

Smiling and trying not to crack up again, "yeah. Lexi was telling me what the rest of my former team have been up to. Evidently, she, Vala and Daniel pulled a prank on Cam the other day and he needed a whole bottle of disinfectant to get the stench off."

John watches as Carter and Lexi start laughing again and as he looks at the two of them, his eyes are drawn to Lexi, who for some reason, seems to have a really strong pull on him.

Hearing McKay coughing, to announce his return and looking down at the tray that is now sitting in front of him, "oh, thanks Rodney." and looking from McKay to Carter, "hey Sam, do you want us to get another table?"

"No, no," Carter says through wheezing breaths, as she tries to stop herself from laughing again. "Actually..." looking at McKay across the table, "I was hoping that you'd come with me, Rodney, I need your, ah, expertise on a couple of things, and they can't wait. I know you just got back, but Zelenka has been bugging me about this for the past couple of days."

Looking down at his dinner, which he's already made a good dent in, "sure Sam, but, can I finish my dinner first?"

"Well, it'd be better if you could come now." she says, standing up and grabbing her tray from the table, "I would love to get this done so Zelenka will stop nagging me."

Looking from John, to Lexi and back to Carter, with a resigned shrug "oh, okay. Rain check, Sheppard?"

"Yeah, no problem."

Standing up and picking up his tray, he falls into step with Carter and as they walk out of the mess, he continues to look back at John, _oh this can't be good, he's entered Kirk mode._

xxxx

Not believing his luck, John smiles to himself as he sweeps his eyes over Lexi. Checking her out, he notices that her eyes are constantly moving, as if she's waiting for something to happen. And remembering that she had said that she had been at the SGC for four years, _you can't work in that place and not always be on the offensive_.

Focusing more closely on her eyes, he notices that they are brown and that she has curly brown hair. She seems to be around 5'7 and _what an amazing body_. At this thought he catches himself, _this is Carter's niece, and she's a lot younger then me._

In scanning her eyes around the mess, Lexi had caught John checking her out and she smiles to herself, as he is just so good looking and of course he is exactly her type, in every way. She had sized him up when he and McKay had approached the table, around 6'2, athletic, black hair and hazel eyes.

"So Colonel..."

Startling, as he sees her looking at him, "Lexi, if I have to forgo your title, then call me John."

"Okay then, John." and smiling at him, "this place is amazing! I mean, Sam told me that I wasn't going to believe it, but, I didn't really think it was going to be this..." waving her hand around at the room and staring him in the eyes, "I don't think I've ever seen something so incredible."

Returning her smile, realizing that she is just as taken with the city as he had been and standing up, "well, if you think this part of the city is amazing, come with me."

Locking eyes with him and seeing the flirtatious sparkle in them, she stands up and follows him out of the mess to the transporter. Reaching it, they get in and he hits the panel for his desired destination. Stepping out of the transporter, she feels her heart starting to flutter, as the excitement of the whole situation starts to wash over her.

"John, where are you taking me?"

"Oh, wait and you'll see."

She catches the smile on his face and as they walk a little further from the transporter door she realizes that they're in the Jumper bay.

Remembering that Carter had told her, that except for Jack and Cam, she didn't know anyone who loved to fly as much as John, her smile broadens even more, "oh, are we going for a little trip?"

"Yeah. I figured the best way to see the city was by air. Plus, it's a great night out, so you should have a clear view of the whole city."

"Cool!" she says, as she walks into the Jumper and it lights up at her presence.

Smiling at her reaction, he doesn't realize that the Jumper had lit up upon her entrance and as he heads for the pilot seat, "flight, this is Sheppard." and sitting down, "tell Colonel Carter, I'm taking Jumper 1 out for a flight around the city. She'll completely understand."

"Copy that Colonel" comes Chuck's response and with a grin in Lexi's direction, he flies the Jumper out of its docking bay.

Flying the Jumper straight up, he clears the tower and heads due east. Timing it perfectly, he turns the Jumper to face the city, smiling as he hears, "wow! Oh, John it's stunning!" and he couldn't agree more, as he takes in the sun setting behind Atlantis, lighting the sky on fire and causing the city, which is just starting to light up, to sparkle like a bunch of beautiful crystals.

Looking over at her, he chuckles a little, as she has slid to the edge of her seat and is now looking at him, a look of amazement on her face.

"I thought you'd like it..." he says, with a grin and a wink, flirting with her a little, even though he doesn't mean to and as she turns her head to look back out at the city again, he does too, racking his brain trying to remember who else besides himself had loved this view of the city. And then it hits him. Elizabeth had reacted the same way, the first time she had seen the city like this. But, he quickly puts this thought out of his mind and turning to look in her direction again, he sees her watching him, concern etched across her face.

"John, is there something wrong?"

Quickly looking away, "no, I'm good."

Nodding her head, she watches him a little while longer, trying to get a read on what he had been feeling, but realizing that it's a lost cause, she inwardly smiles as she knows that he's gonna be surprised as hell by what she's about to ask him, "um, John. I know this might sound strange, but could I give it a try?"

Looking at her again, eyebrows arched, "give what a try?"

Sheepishly smiling, "flying the Jumper?"

Looking at her dumbfounded for a couple of seconds, before his mind starts to work again, "huh, what? You want to fly the Jumper?"

"Yeah, back on Earth, Cam, I mean Colonel Mitchell, let me fly with him once. Sam doesn't know she was at Area 51 for a quick visit. So he took me up in a 302 and actually let me take the stick. It was awesome."

Staring at her in disbelief, "but didn't Landry have a cow?"

Shrugging, "well, yeah. But Cam was cool with it because I promised him a full marathon of playing his favorite video games."

"You like video games?"

Smiling, "yeah."

Shaking his head in disbelief, but coming back to her original request, "Lexi, you need the ATA gene in order to fly it and Sam doesn't have it."

"Well, as it turns out, my mom has it."

"How did you find out that you had it?"

"I was in the infirmary when SG-1 came back from a mission. Dr. Lam needed someone to activate one of the LSD's that you guys had sent through the Gate for study and I had noticed her holding it and being curious I took it from her and the damn thing just lit up."

"So how did Carter react?" he asks her, trying to get a mental picture of the situation.

"If I remember correctly she passed out. But I think that might've been because she had lost a bunch of blood. Once we knew she was going to be okay, I kept asking why it was so important. But no one would tell me. Of course I had no idea what she meant at the time, but now I know."

Laughing at the mental picture and at the look on her face, he gets up and switches places with her. Sitting down in the co-pilots seat, he opens his mouth to tell her how to fly the Jumper, but shuts it quickly in shock, as she is already flying it as if it were nothing. Flying the Jumper back towards the city, she easily runs through some fancy flying maneuvers and finally piloting the tiny craft into a dive, that he is sure she is going to crash from, he lets out a breath, as she easily levels the craft off.

Setting the Jumper to hover, she looks over at him with a look of pure joy on her face, "oh wow! That was unbelievable."

After catching his breath and realizing that they are indeed still alive, "how did you do that?"

Looking over at her, he sees her lounging in the pilot's seat, looking at him and trying not to burst out laughing at the look of excitement that he knows is plastered on his face.

She opens her mouth to respond, but the radio bursts to life, cutting her off, "Jumper 1 this is Lorne. Colonel, was that you that was just flying?

Before John can answer, "Evan is that you?" Lexi asks, and seeing John's confused look, "remember John, four years at the SGC."

Comprehension dawning on his face, as Lorne's voice comes back over the radio, "Lexibeth, I should have known. You know if your aunt knew what you were doing."

"Evan, what have I told you about calling me that." she practically yells over the radio, but as she looks back towards the city, "the Colonel and I will be back in ten minutes. Jumper 1 out."

Still staring at her, "Lexibeth?" he asks.

Standing up and switching places with him, shrugging again as she sits down in the co-pilots seat, "yeah, well my whole name is Alexa Elizabeth and before Evan was shipped out to Atlantis, we dated."

Taking his eyes off the view shield to look at her, surprise etched across his forehead, "you two dated," he asks, hoping that the pain at hearing the name Elizabeth and the jealousy he is feeling, doesn't show on his face.

As the Jumper docks, she turns to face him fully, smiling to cover the concern that is swirling inside of her, as she hadn't missed the emotions playing in his eyes, at the mention of her middle name or the fact that she dated Lorne, "yeah, for about a year and then he had to leave to come here. So we broke it off. In explanation of the nickname, well, that's a bit of an embarrassing story that you should ask him about."

As the Jumper hatch lowers and they stand up to exit, they see Lorne standing there waiting for them, a huge smile on his face. Also smiling, Lexi literally runs and jumps into his arms in a huge bear hug, that nearly topples him over. John is a little shocked at this, but as Lorne releases her and sees his face, he simply stiffens up a bit.

Playfully hitting him on the shoulder, "Evan, why are you getting all soldier boy on me?"

Relaxing a little after seeing the nod that John gives him, "Lexibeth, when did you get here? You weren't due for three weeks."

"Well, I thought I'd surprise everyone. Oh and I believe that you have a bit of explaining to do. You see, I told John that he should ask you about my nickname."

Smiling wide, "Colonel, I think we need to go someplace a little less sensitive for this one."

"Okay, Major lead the way. This I've got to hear."

xxxx

They walk towards the mess and as they are walking, John stays a step behind, noticing that Lexi is holding Lorne's arm. He gets so caught up in his own thoughts that as they reach the mess hall doors, "Colonel, whoa, you okay?"

Feeling Lorne's hand on his shoulder, "huh, what?" and realizing that they are looking at him with concern, "yeah, I'm fine, I was, um, just, somewhere else for a second. Hey, why don't you grab a table and I'll get the drinks. Whatcha having?"

"Coke" Lorne answers.

"Water, please." Lexi says.

Arching an eyebrow at her, "you don't drink?"

"Oh," with a look at Lorne, "I drink, just not beer. Makes me sick."

Looking at Lorne, who is trying really hard not to fall over from laughing, "okay, I'll be right back." and turning on the spot he heads for the food line, really looking forward to hearing the story, as he has a feeling that beer has a part in it.

Grabbing the drinks, he heads back to where they are sitting on the mess hall balcony. Reaching the table, he notices that Lexi is shivering a little in the cool air and he curses himself for not bringing his jacket with him. As he places the drinks down on the table, he sees Lorne stand up from his chair draping his jacket around her shoulders. John watches as Lexi slides into it and catches his eye, causing him to blush a little as he sits down across from her. Lorne waits for him to sit and then he sits too.

"Okay, Lorne, spill."

"Oh man, where to start? Lexi, you might need to start this off."

Rolling her eyes, but smiling anyway, "fine," and looking from him to John, "okay, so if I remember correctly it was my 22nd birthday. I had just joined the SGC the day before and Sam had said that she was going to be on Earth for my birthday. But, as I quickly found out the hard way, with Sam and her team, shit happens. So there I was sitting in my quarters at the SGC, fuming, because not only was Sam off world, but something bad was going on and I couldn't do anything about it. I got so fed up with just sitting around in my room that I decided I would head down to the mess to grab a bite to eat, to take my mind off of things. As I was walking into the mess, Evan was walking out and the door slammed right into his nose. Thankfully it wasn't broken, but he had basically sprawled out on the floor from the impact and I felt really bad. After helping him up and continuously apologizing, we ended up chatting for about an hour. After which, he suggested that I could make everything up to him by letting him by me a beer."

Looking at Lorne, "you want to take it from here?" she asks, as she takes a swig of her water and draws his jacket around her.

"Right, well. I took her to the Blue Lava and as you can imagine with a name like Blue Lava, there's going to be trouble," he smirks at the memory and continues, "we got to the club and once we got in, I bought some beer and then the fun began. I think we were on the tenth round, when this huge guy decided to come up and start hitting on her. Now, I can hold my liqueur and usually I'm pretty confident in a fight, but ten rounds of beer and well one thing led to another and this guy had me in a choke hold..."

Looking at Lexi and continuing the story with a smile on his face, "so I'm being held in a choke hold and for g-d only knows what reason, she decided that she needed a blue Jell-O shot on top of the ten rounds of beer and of course a group of people were starting to gather. The next thing I know, not only am I flat on my back, but the guy is lying next to me covered in blue Jell-O. Somehow and I'm still not entirely sure how, but this little lady over here, managed to flip both of us and the Jell-O shots were everywhere. I was lying on the floor embarrassed, because I had now ended up flat on my back twice in a period of about eight hours and then I saw that she was reaching down to help me up and the only words that I was able to get out, as she helped me up were Lexibeth. Oh..." he says with a another look in Lexi's direction, "the part that she was referring to was that right after she helped me up, out came everything, she puked all over the poor guy."

Seeing Lorne and Lexi cracking up, John stares at them for a couple of seconds more and catching Lexi's eye, seeing the twinkle in it, he cracks up too.

A couple of minutes later, getting his laughter under control, "okay," John says through wheezes, "don't ever let me get you angry or drunk on beer and blue Jell-O shots."

Catching the chemistry between Lexi and John, Lorne, smiles to himself as a thought occurs to him and getting up from the table, "well, Lexi. Colonel, I'm gonna head back upstairs, I'm still on watch."

"Oh, Evan, do you have to go?" Lexi asks, as she gets up and looks at him. But seeing the look he is giving her, she understands what he is doing and smiling, she hugs him and pulling away she starts to take off his jacket.

"No Lexi, keep it. It's chilly out and you can give it back to me later. It's not like I don't know where you live." he says with smile.

"Thanks," she says, sitting back down at the table across from John, who was watching the two of them.

"Good night, Lexi. Colonel."

"Night, Lorne." John says, and as he walks away from the table and looks back, he sees that John is watching him, mouthing "thanks" and smiling back, he nods.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chap. 3:

* * *

**

John and Lexi, talk all night. The following morning around 0700, McKay, Teyla and Ronon walk out on the balcony to have breakfast, to find them still talking, steaming cups of coffee in their hands and leaning in close to each other.

"McKay, who's that Sheppard is talking to?" Ronon asks.

"Oh, that's Lexi. She's Sam's niece and the new Heightmeyer." he says, as he leads them over to the table and as they reach the table, "morning you two."

Turning to look at them, a little embarrassed, "morning guys. Lexi let me introduce you to Ronon Dex and Teyla Emmagan. They're the other two members of my team."

"Hi, nice to meet you." Lexi says, as the three of them sit down at the table.

"John, were you two up all night?" Teyla asks, with a bit of concern mixed with amusement in her voice.

Looking at Lexi and then down at his watch, "yeah, I guess we were. Actually," and gesturing to Lexi, to get up with him, "we were just about to leave." and seeing the smirk Ronon is throwing him, "what!"

"Nothing, Sheppard. Hey we still on to spar this afternoon?"

"Yeah," John replies, "I have to meet with Colonel Carter and then I have to update the duty rosters for off world, but we can meet up at 1500 in the gym."

"Good, see you then."

And with that John and Lexi leave the mess.

"I wonder what they were talking about for all that time. I don't ever remember seeing John look at someone the way he was looking at her." Teyla says.

McKay looks up from his tablet, which he had been pouring over, while eating and listening to the conversation and realizing that Ronon and Teyla are looking at him with questioning looks, "what? I only know Lexi a little. The most I know is that she is Sam's niece and some sort of genius. She's been working at the SGC as lead psychiatrist for the past four years. But, I think Sheppard must really like her, because last night when I left them, he had his look on."

"She's hot," comes Ronon's voice. Teyla and McKay just look at him and with that they all finish their food and go about their day.

xxxx

After they had left the mess, John walked Lexi to her quarters. Coming to a stop in front of the doors and swiping them open, she doesn't walk inside. Instead, she turns to face him and looks him in the eyes and in that brief moment she can see all the pain that he is keeping to himself, but then the pain is gone and he smiles at her. Standing there looking him over, she sees the dark circles that are starting to form under his eyes, from having been up all night and she really wants to invite him into her room. But figuring that it is to soon for that, she decides to say good night.

"Well good night, John. I really had fun last night." and then the doctor in her comes out, "you are going to get some sleep, before you meet with Sam, right?"

Raising an eyebrow at her, "yeah, I'm gonna head to my quarters right now and hit the sack for a couple hours." and smiling, "hey, you want to grab dinner tonight?"

Returning his smile, "yeah. I'll meet you in the mess at 2000." she says, and quickly glancing around the corridor, she stands on her toes and brushes her lips across his and pulling away, she walks into her quarters, the doors closing behind her.

Watching as the doors close behind her and rubbing his hand on the back of his head, he starts towards his quarters, replaying the whole night in his head. He had talked more to her last night, than he had ever talked to anyone before and that included his ex wife. They didn't really talk about anything in particular, just whatever came to mind.

Reaching his quarters he swipes himself into them, smiling as the thought of seeing her again and maybe kissing her again is runs through his head, causing the doubt comes back at him again, _this is Sam's niece and oh jeeze what would McKay and Ronon think. I'll never hear the end of it._

Heading over to his dresser, he takes out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt and changing into them he suddenly realizes how tired he is. Climbing into bed and setting his alarm to get him up at 1000, he lies down and is asleep within five minutes.

xxxx

It is coming up on 1530 and John is running late for his sparring session with Ronon. He had been in his office, going over the off world duty rosters and had lost track of the time. It didn't help that McKay had come in to bother him about something that he really wasn't interested in. So by the time he had realized that he was late, he had to sprint to get to the gym.

Reaching it, he is surprised by the sight that meets his eyes. Ronon, Lexi and Teyla are in the middle of a sparing match and Lexi is holding her own.

He stands in the doorway watching her lunge and thrust as gracefully as Teyla and then she attacks with a force that is so fast and quick that it reminds him of Ronon. Just as he opens his mouth say something, Lexi and Teyla lunge at Ronon and take him down. They straighten up and help him up, the look on his face, one of anger and amusement and as his eyes come to rest on John, "it's about damn time, buddy. I thought you said 1500."

"Sorry big guy got way laid by McKay."

Teyla and Lexi head to the bench to grab some water and their towels.

Heading for the exit of the gym, "hey Ronon, Teyla, thanks for the sparring match, but I've got to go." and with a look at John, "John, I'll see you tonight."

Teyla and Ronon look at each other as Lexi exits and back at John who seems very interested in the ceiling at the moment.

"Dinner?" Teyla asks.

Looking at her and dropping his towel on the bench, "yeah, we're gonna finish our chat from last night." and grabbing his sticks, coming out onto the mat where Ronon and Teyla are standing, "so we gonna spar or not?"

Smiling at the two men and heading for the exit as well, "well, I've got to go. I have plans with Jennifer. Have fun boys."

"See you Teyla," Ronon says, and getting his own sticks and starting to circle the mat, "so Sheppard, you like Lexi?" he asks, as he lunges at John with the sticks.

"Yeah, I guess, she's okay" John says, knocking away Ronon's stick with his own and getting hit in the back.

"You tired," Ronon asks, with a laugh and he attacks again.

"No!" John grits out, as he gets hit again, this time on the left shoulder. "hey, would you take it easy? You wanna beat me up today?"

Ronon laughs and simply lunges again and as he does so, "you know it's okay if you like her. She's a good fighter and she's hot."

"You know, what..." John says, as he ducks out of the way of another blow, "looks aren't everything."

"Yeah, but they don't hurt either," Ronon says, and finally he catches John off balance and manages to whack him on the head. John hits the floor hard and just lies there for a couple of seconds, breathing hard.

"You know what," he says, as he props himself up on his elbows and reaching up to his forehead, he winces as he touches the sore spot. Pulling his hand away, seeing blood on his fingers, "I think I need to stop sparing with you when I've only had a couple of hours of sleep. Now help me up."

Ronon reaches down and heaves him up to his feet and nodding towards the door, "to Keller's?"

Walking over to grab his towel and putting it on the cut, "I think she's gonna have both our asses this time."

On their way to the infirmary, Ronon keeps prying him for more information about what he had talked about with Lexi and as they walk in the door to the infirmary, he inwardly sighs as he's never been so happy about being there and calling out for Keller, "hey doc?"

"Ah my two most stubborn patients." Keller says from in her office and as she walks out and looks at them, "so what is it this time?" she asks pulling on gloves.

"Ronon decided to use my head as a piñata again." John says, sitting down on a gurney and pulling the towel away from his head.

"Hey, don't blame me. This one's all on you." and turning to Keller, "he'll be okay, right?"

Looking at the wound and grabbing some gauze and hydrogen peroxide to clean it, "yeah, Ronon, it doesn't look like he'll need stitches," and cleaning it off, "but, don't be surprised if you have one hell of a bruise and headache."

At Keller's reassurance, Ronon smiles at them and bolts out of the infirmary and watching his quickly retreating back, "honestly, you'd think that I'm a monster or something." Keller says with a laugh, as she starts cleaning up the materials she had used to clean John's wound.

"Yeah." John says softly, still sitting on the gurney. All of a sudden the room starts to shift slightly and he realizes that he's actually starting to feel really dizzy and nauseous and can't figure out if it's from the bump on his head or the fact that he's operating on three hours sleep.

Finished cleaning up, Keller goes over to the medicine locker to get the Tylenol out and as she turns around to walk back to the gurney to hand it to him, she notices that he's starting to sway a little. She's by his side just in time to catch him from falling forward off of it.

"Whoa, Colonel," she says, helping him lie back onto the gurney, "you okay?"

Having a hard time keeping his eyes open, "really woozy" he manages to get out, before he drifts off into unconsciousness.

She gently shakes him and getting no response, she takes out her penlight again and checks his pupils, happy that they are normal. She grabs the oxygen mask that is hanging behind the gurney and easily positions it over his nose and mouth. She checks his pulse, which is also normal and then his blood pressure which is a little low, but satisfied that he's in no immediate danger, she pulls a privacy screen around his bed and covers him with a blanket.

Heading out around the curtain for her office, "Colonel Carter, come in please, this is Dr. Keller."

"Go ahead Doctor."

"Colonel, I just wanted to let you know that I have Colonel Sheppard here. He's unconscious, but stable. He was sparring with Ronon and took a blow the head."

"Do you think that he could have a concussion?"

"No, it doesn't look like he has one. But I'll change my mind, if he doesn't wake up in the next half hour. I'll keep you updated. Keller, out."

xxxx

Making her rounds, she leaves John for last and as she walks around the privacy curtain, she's met with the sight of him pulling the oxygen mask off his face and throwing the blanket off at the same time.

"Ah, Colonel, you're awake. How do you feel?"

Sitting up and swinging his feet down off the gurney, "well other than a screaming headache, I'm fine."

Coming over to his side and reaching for his wrist, "do you remember what happened?"

Glaring at her, annoyed, "yeah. Ronon whacked me in the head, I came here, you patched me up and then the lights went out."

"Good, that you remember." letting go of his wrist, smiling and taking the Tylenol out of her pocket and handing it to him with some water, "here, take this for the headache. I'm gonna to let you out of here, but if you start to feel dizzy again, please come back and see me."

Taking the pills, handing her the cup and heading out of the infirmary for his quarters, "thanks, Doc. I will."

Reaching his quarters and swiping his way in, he inwardly moans as he sees the time on the bedside clock, telling him that he has just over forty five minutes to get ready for his meeting with Lorne and Carter. Heading into the bathroom, he looks at his forehead in the mirror and frowns as he sees that there's already a welt over his right eye where Ronon hit him with the stick.

Turning towards the shower, "well John, that's what you get for staying up all night." he says out loud to the room. Out of no where, a wave of nausea washes over him and he makes it to the toilet just in time to retch up what little food he has in his stomach. As the nausea finally passes and he gets the retching and his breathing under control, he straightens up weakly, flushing the toilet and walks over to the sink. Turning it on, he cups some water into his hands and splashes it over his face. He swirls some in his mouth and then clumsily undresses and gets into the shower.

He lets the hot water run over his sore and aching body, and can't for the life of him figure out why he is feeling so awful all of a sudden. But not wanting to miss dinner with Lexi, for a return trip to see Keller, he takes a deep breath to calm his stomach and gets out of the shower. He towels himself off and throws on a pair of BDU pants, a black t-shirt and realizing that he's cold, he grabs a black pull over fleece from his dresser and pulls it on, as well. Checking his watch, which reads 1840, he heads out of his quarters for Carter's office. On his way there he runs into Lorne and they walk the rest of the way together.

Eyeing the bandage, "Ronon got you good this time, sir"

"Yeah, what else is new?" John asks, with a weak smile, as they reach Carter's office and walk in.

Carter looks up, as they walk in the door and waves them to take a seat across from her.

Also seeing the bandage and frowning at how bad he looks, "John, how's the head? Dr. Keller, radioed when you left the infirmary."

"It's fine, Colonel." he says in an exasperated tone and with a smile, as if to say sorry, "shall we get down to business?"

Hearing John's response, Lorne tries not to laugh, knowing that he hates it when people fuss over him, but he also hadn't missed how bad John looked as they were walking to Carter's office. But as Carter starts the meeting, he pushes the thought to the back of his mind.

The three of them discuss everything and as John and Lorne get up to leave, "John, hang on a sec."

Watching Lorne head out the door, with an apologetic look his way and looking at his watch, seeing that it's already 1950, he sighs, "what's up Sam?"

Standing up, she comes around to the front of the desk, leaning on it, "are you feeling okay?

Staring at her, "yeah, I'm good. Was that all?"

Realizing that he isn't going to admit to feeling sick, she changes the subject, "no. I wanted to talk to you about Lexi..."

Going on the defensive, "I'm not going to do anything with her in that way. We just talked and that's it. Nothing happened."

Looking at him with a smile, "oh, no, I wasn't going to tell you not to see her. That's not my place, at all. She's old enough to make those decisions for herself, it's just..."

"Then what?"

Stepping closer to him, "look, I know that you like to keep things close to the vest and in our business that's a good thing, it lets us do our jobs. But with Lexi, well, I just want to warn you. She's really good at her job and sooner rather than later, I have a feeling that she's going to get you to talk to her about things, you'd rather not talk about."

"Ah, okay. Thanks. Hey, I've got to go, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, have a good night. Oh and get some sleep, that's an order." she says with a smile.

Walking out of the office and talking over his shoulder, "I will, 'Night."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chap. 4:

* * *

**

Running late again, he silently curses the fact that Carter had kept him late and that she had warned him about dealing with Lexi. But walking into the mess and seeing Lexi sitting at a table, everything he had been thinking melts away. Looking her over, he sees that she's wearing a light blue sweater, a pair of jeans and loafers and looks incredible. As he gets closer to the table, he sees that she is focused on her tablet, trying to figure something out.

Coming to a stop right next to her, "hey, sorry I'm late. Meeting with Sam and Lorne ran over."

Looking up at him and starting to smile, but quickly frowning, as she takes in the welt on the side of his head and how pale he is, "oh my g-d, John what happened? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he says, quickly glancing around, as her question has gotten the attention of some of the other people in the mess, "Ronon knocked me around a bit, that's it," he says sitting down and gesturing to her tablet, to deflect the rest of her concern away from him, "whatcha doin?"

"Oh," and looking back down at her tablet and back at him with a slight grin, realizing what he's doing, "I'm just trying to pick my college fantasy football team. Right now I have the UCLA defense and the USC offense, but I'm stuck on the last couple of choices."

Staring at her, not believing what he is hearing, "you like college football?"

Looking up at him again from the tablet, "what?" and seeing the look on his face, "oh yeah, football, hockey and baseball, some soccer but not too much, oh and golf. My clubs are coming on the Apollo."

"Are you kidding me?"

"John, I grew up with an older brother. I had to know about all these things and well yeah, I do love them all. Oh, wait, look at this." she turns her attention back to her tablet and brings up a video player program and hits play. To his surprise it is a video of Doug Flutie and the Hail Mary pass.

"It's one of my favorite plays, ever!" she says, in response to the look on his face and seeing that he seems to be having trouble speaking, "what's wrong?"

Finally managing to find his voice, "nothing. Let's get some food."

As they stand up, she doesn't miss how unsteady he seems on his feet, but instead of saying something, she walks next to him and they head for the food line. They get back to the table and sitting down, they pick up their conversation where they had left off.

They talk until 0100, at which point Lexi looks around and notices they are nearly alone in the mess. Her eyes land on John and she inhales sharply at how bad he looks. She sees that he hasn't eaten much of his dinner and he's pinching the bridge of his nose, as if he has a really horrible headache, "John, are you sure you're feeling okay? Maybe you should go see Dr. Keller."

Dropping his hand to the table and looking at her, he frowns as he can't shake the headache that is pounding behind his eyes or the nausea that has come back with a vengeance, "could we just head back to my quarters?"

"Yeah, come on. I'll walk you back," and standing up she grabs her tablet and falls into step with him.

As they are walking, he starts to sway a bit and seeing this she moves her tablet into her right hand and gently slides her left arm around his waist. At first he's taken by surprise, not used to the feeling of her arm around him. But as the halls start to sway a little more, he inwardly sighs thankful that she has an arm around him and that there is no one in the halls.

xxxx

A few minutes later they reach his quarters and by this point his head is screaming, he's feeling even sicker to his stomach and all he wants to do is to lie down. Sensing his discomfort somehow, she swipes them into his quarters and has him by his bed in a matter of seconds. She pulls the blankets down to the end of the bed and gently lowers him onto it. Drifting in and out, he can feel her hands, working over him. First, taking the radio out of his ear, placing it on the bedside table, then moving down to take his boots off. Working her way up to his waist, he feels her undoing his belt buckle and sliding off his pants.

"You know under other circumstances this would be romantic," he says, the words slightly slurring as they leave his mouth.

"Well, who said that it isn't," she asks facetiously, as she sits down on the edge of his bed and easily pulls him up into a sitting position.

"Oh boy."

"What's wrong?" she asks, as she pulls off his fleece.

"Room's spinning," he grinds out, as she lays him back down and covers him with blankets.

"That better?" she asks, as she swipes the bedside lamp down a notch.

"Mm, Hmm," he mumbles, as the warmth and comfort of his bed finally lull him towards sleep.

"Oh, John." is all that she says as she watches him drift off to sleep. The doctor in her is starting to get worried. So after checking his pulse, she hits the radio in her ear, "Dr. Carter, calling the infirmary, is Dr. Keller on right now."

"This is Dr. Keller. Colonel is that you?"

"No, Dr. Keller, this is Lexi Carter. I'm the Colonel's niece and the new psychiatrist on base. We haven't met yet, but Dr. Lam speaks very highly of you."

"Oh, thanks. But you weren't due here for another three weeks."

"That's right. But I came through the Gate with Rodney yesterday evening. Anyways, that's not why I'm calling."

"Oh, okay, what's up?"

"I'm in Colonel Sheppard's quarters."

"Really? Why are you there?"

Frowning, "I was having dinner with him and walked him back. He wasn't feeling well."

"What are his symptoms?"

"From what I can tell, he's got a really bad headache, he hardly ate anything at dinner and he has a bad case of vertigo."

"Are his vitals stable?"

"Yeah, pulse and respiration are normal."

"Well, he'll probably just sleep it off and I'll check on him in the morning. But just to make sure, I'll take him off active duty until I see him."

"Good. Oh and please call me Lexi."

"Okay, Lexi, please call me Jennifer." Keller says, and closes the radio circuit, sending off an email to Carter to let her know that John is being restricted to base until further notice.

Not really satisfied with Keller's choice not to check on John right now, she decides to stay and watch over him. Taking the extra blanket that is at the bottom of the bed, lying down on the couch and making sure she can still see his face she sets her watch alarm to vibrate and go off every two hours. Scanning him over one more time, she lets herself fall asleep.

The second time her alarm goes off at 0500, she gets up and walking over to the bedside table, she turns off his alarm. Remembering, from one of their conversations the previous night, that he has the day off, "so if he sleeps in, it won't do any harm," she says under her breath, as she settles back down on the couch. Pulling the blanket up to her chin, she glances over at him, frowning at him tossing and turning under the blankets, as if he is having a really bad nightmare.

xxxx

_John is back on the Replicator home world and he and Ronon are heading back to the Jumper all the while trying to get Elizabeth to respond to their hails. Not having any luck, they detour to try and get her back. They find her standing in the hallway with Oberoth kneeling in front of her, his hand keeping her hand in a tight grip and the Replicators are starting to move. He knows that she won't be able to hold them off much longer and he screams her name. Instead of going with him, she orders him to leave her and get back to the Jumper. Seeing the look on her face, as Ronon pulls him around the corner of the hallway..._

He bolts up shaking and shouting Elizabeth's name. Gaining his bearings, he feels his head screaming, his t-shirt drenched in sweat and blinking his eyes a couple of times, he feels and finally sees, that someone is sitting on the edge of his bed, trying to get him to focus on them.

Reaching his side a split second after he had bolted up right, "John, look at me, it's okay, it was just a dream." and resting her hands on his shoulders, she feels him shaking. Saying his name again, relief washes through her, as he finally focuses on her, "how are you feeling?"

Shrugging off her hands from his shoulders, scrunching his eyes shut against the spinning room and lying back down, "I've been better," and opening his eyes again, now that he is lying down, "my head's killing me."

"I'm not surprised, you're burning up," and taking his wrist in her hand, she looks down at her watch, checking his pulse and grimacing, "I think we should get you to the infirmary and have you checked out."

Pulling his wrist out of her hand, "Lexi, I'm fine. I just need something for this headache and some more sleep and I'll be good as new."

Looking him in the eyes and seeing the fever behind them, "are you sure? It's just, you really don't look good."

Before he can say anything, the door chimes and looking from the door back to Lexi, he catches the look of panic in her eyes, knowing that she also knows what will happen if whoever is on the other side of the door, sees her in his room.

The door chimes again and this time, "Colonel, are you in there, it's Dr. Keller."

"Speak of the devil." he whispers.

"Oh, I forgot. She said she was going to come by and check up on you this morning. Can you get up?"

Considering her question for a second, he sits up, only to shut his eyes quickly as the room spins again. Taking a deep breath to settle his stomach and opening his eyes, he swings his legs over the side of the bed and taking Lexi's hands, he stands up slowly.

Shifting to his side, "we'll take it nice and slow." she says, as she drapes his arm over her shoulder and wraps her left arm around his waist.

Groaning in disgust, as another wave of dizziness sweeps over him, "oh, this is just great." he whispers and out of nowhere, he starts to cough and they have to stop.

Looking up at him, feeling the heat radiating from him, "it could be worse," she whispers back.

Looking at her sideways, as they continue towards the door, "how could this possibly be worse?" he asks and hearing the door chime again, "I'll be right there," he shouts hoarsely.

Reaching the door and smiling up at him, "well, Jennifer could've just walked in." and extracting herself from under his arm, making sure that he is able to stand on his own, "you good?"

Nodding and whispering, "yeah, sort of." and hooking his thumb behind him, "go hide in the bathroom."

Walking into the bathroom and talking over her shoulder, "I'm going."

Making certain that she is in the bathroom and can't be seen, he opens the door, keeping his arm outstretched and holding onto the door frame to keep himself upright, "hey, sorry doc, I was sleeping and just heard the bell. What's up?"

"I was wondering how you're feeling."

"I'm okay."

Scanning him over and inwardly sighing, as she can tell that he's sick, "John..."

Gripping the doorframe even tighter as he is having a hard time keeping himself up straight and silently cursing the fact that he is now starting to shiver, "doc, I'm really fine. Just really tired, but," fixing her with the best smile he can and standing up as straight as he can, "if you have some Tylenol, I'd gladly take it."

Rolling her eyes, sticking her hand into the pocket of her lab coat, pulling out a small bottle and handing it to him, "here, take two every six hours and because you won't come to the infirmary now, I expect to see you tomorrow morning for a check up. I won't clear you for active duty until you come in."

Eyebrows shooting up, "why did you ground me? Better, question, when?"

"Last night after chatting with Dr. Carter. I knew that you were off today, but it was my only leverage to get you to come in for a check up and you really look horrible. So no complaining." she says, and turning on the spot she heads back to the infirmary.

Slumping against the doorframe, watching her retreating figure, he startles a little as Lexi is at his side before he even tries to move. She helps him walk over to the bed and eases him onto it.

Slumping down on the pillows, still fuming at Keller, "sometimes I really can't stand Doctors! Why'd you talk to her last night?"

Walking over to the mini fridge to grab a water bottle, "you were and are sick and when you fell asleep last night, I was a little worried." and coming back over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it, handing him the water bottle, "so I radioed her to let her know that you were ill. And don't be angry with her, she's only doing her job and she cares for you," and with a laugh at the look he is fixing her with, "I would've done the same thing, I really don't know how you managed to stay standing."

Taking the pills and handing the water bottle back to her, "you would've grounded me too?"

"Yeah." placing the water bottle on the bedside table, "the doctor in me probably would've kept you in the infirmary after you got whacked in the head, even if it meant tying you to the bed."

Smirking, "really?" and as a yawn escapes him, "I guess I can't blame you for that."

Catching the yawn and realizing that he's going to be out cold soon, "I'm gonna head out."

Reaching out to grab her hand to stop her, "can you stay?

Sitting back down on the bed, confusion etched across her face, "yeah, I can stay. But, are you sure that you want me to?"

Smiling at her, "yeah Lexi, please stay."

Looking him the eyes and starting to run her right hand through his hair, "I'll stay as long as you want me to."

His eyes drift shut, the smile still on his lips. A couple of minutes later, thinking that he is asleep she lets go of his hand. Just as she is about to stand up, his eyes snap open searching for hers, "don't go anywhere, please just stay."

Breath catching in her chest, at the fear in his eyes, "I was just gonna go sit on the couch, I'm not going anywhere, I promise." and staring at him, she tries to remember the last time she had seen that type of fear and vulnerability in someone's eyes and then it hits her. It had been when her brother had been sick and their parents had been away on vacation and she had had to take care of him.

Not saying anything, but shifting closer to the other side of the bed, he holds out his left arm, wondering if she will lie down next to him. He smiles to himself as she does so and as he places his arm over her shoulders, she rests her head on his chest. Breathing her in, he smiles, as the scent reminds him of flowers and coconut.

Lying there with his arms around her, _this is crazy!_ and as he shifts a little in the bed, feeling her shifting closer to him, _yeah, but it feels really great to have someone worrying about me this way and willing to stay with me_. and trying to keep his eyes open not wanting to fall asleep, _but you've never needed someone to do this. You've always done better on your own. Maybe Carter was right._ and listening to her steady breathing matching his, _yeah, but she hasn't tried to play shrink yet. She's just taken care of me_. is the last thing on his mind as the exhaustion finally wins out.

_G-d damn it Lexi! Never in all your life, have you allowed a guy to get to you like this._ and looking up at him sleeping, _yeah, but it feels really good to be in his arms._ and smiling to herself, she watches him sleep for a little while longer, until surprisingly enough she too falls asleep, the galaxy lag finally catching up to her.

xxxx

They sleep together until 1200, when Lexi's radio goes off in her ear. Startling awake, she smiles to herself, happy that her nearly jumping out of her skin, hasn't woken John up.

Extracting herself from his arms, recovering him with the blankets and walking into the bathroom, activating the radio, "this is Dr. Carter, go ahead."

"Dr. Carter, this is Chuck in the Control room. Colonel Carter is looking for you and would like you to meet her in her office in ten minutes. Can you be there?"

Stepping out of the bathroom and seeing John fast asleep in the bed, "yeah Chuck, please tell Sam I'll be there shortly. Carter, out."

Closing the link, she walks over to the desk and writes a note letting John know where she has gone and that she will be coming back to check up on him. Picking up her tablet from the couch, leaving the note on the bedside table she heads out for Carter's office.

Getting in the transporter, she pops a piece of gum in her mouth and checking to make sure she doesn't look as if she has just woken up in the transporter screen, she hits the section for the Control room. Stepping out of the transporter and walking around the consoles, she smiles at Chuck, who nods at her.

Walking across the bridge leading into Carter's office, plastering a smile on her face and knocking on the door, "hey Sam..." and seeing that Carter isn't alone, "ah, what's up?"

"Lexi, this is Dr. Jennifer Keller." Carter says and as soon as Lexi and Keller have greeted each other and are sitting down across from her, "Dr. Keller was just catching me up on the Colonel's status."

Squirming a little under her aunt's gaze, but smiling, "oh really. Have you cleared him for duty yet?"

Grimacing a little, "no. I'm not going to clear him until I've seen him for a check up. I was really worried by how bad he looked this morning and I want to make sure that it's only fatigue that he's suffering from and not something else."

"Oh, okay." and turning her attention to Carter, "so what did you want to see me about, Sam?"

Smiling at Keller, "thanks Jennifer, keep me informed, please."

Getting up and heading out the door, "will do Colonel. Lexi it was great to meet you."

Calling after her, "you too, Jennifer." and turning her head to look at Carter, she inwardly winces, at the look on her face.

"Alexa Elizabeth, I know I have no right to tell you who you can and can't see, but Colonel Sheppard is well, he's, oh how to put this?"

"Let me help you out Sam. He's not a safe bet and he's fifteen years older than me, should I go on?"

Seeing the determination and stubbornness flashing in her eyes, "no Lexi, you don't have to go on. It's just that I love you and I don't want you to get hurt."

Sighing heavily, "Sam, I'm not planning on getting involved with him." and at the raised eyebrow Carter is giving her, "right now, I'm just getting to know him and being that he'll probably never let me treat him as a patient, I might as well get to know him as a friend."

"Okay, but I'll say it again, please be careful." and realizing that she is hungry, "hey, have you had lunch yet?"

Smiling, "no, you wanna grab a bite?"

"Yeah." and with that they walk out of office for the mess, both carrying their tablets.

xxxx

A couple hours later, around 1400, Lexi is in the gym on the bike, listening to her iPod when Teyla walks in.

Coming up to her, smiling, "Lexi, how are you settling in?"

Stopping the bike, taking out her earphones and returning the smile, "oh, I'm doing great. It's truly an amazing place. How're you doing?"

"I'm well thank you. I'm waiting on Ronon. We have another sparing match, would you like to join us again?"

Getting off the bike, grabbing her towel and heading for the exit, "oh no thanks Teyla, I have to head back to my office. I've got a bunch of work to do. But I'll take a rain check."

Nodding and watching her reach the exit, "I'll look forward to it."

Reaching the exit and looking back over her shoulder, "great." and turning her head and nearly walking into Ronon, "oh Ronon. I'm sorry."

Stepping aside to let her out and smiling at her, "don't worry about it." he says and turning he walks into the gym. Coming to a stop in front of Teyla, "hey do you think she and Sheppard are really going to get together?"

Turning her attention to him, "I do not know. They certainly seem to get along well. But I do not know if John will allow himself to be in that type of relationship with someone right now."

He nods his understanding and after placing his towel down on the bench the two of them start their sparring match.

Lexi left the gym and headed for her quarters, instead of her office. It was true that she had a bunch of work to do, but she wanted to shower and check in on John, first. Reaching her quarters, she showers, gets dressed in her on base uniform and sliding her radio into her ear she heads out for his quarters.

Reaching them, she swipes the door chime. After a couple of seconds, where he doesn't answer, she mentally opens the doors and walks in to see that he is still sleeping. Walking over to the bed, the doors closing behind her, she tosses out the note that is still sitting on the bedside table and sits down on the edge of the bed closest to the door, scanning him over.

Not being able to stop herself, she gently runs her fingers through his hair and to her surprise, heat and sweat meet them. Leaning over and turning on the bedside light a little, so that she can really look at him, her breath catches in her throat, as he's as white as the sheets he is sleeping on, except for the fever spots on his cheeks and he is shivering.

Pulling the blankets a little further up his chest, "John, can you hear me?"

Opening his eyes at the sound of her voice, but closing them just as quickly, "ugh, Lexi, please turn off the light. It hurts."

Dimming the light with a thought, "how do you feel?"

Suppressing a sneeze and opening his eyes again, "stupid...question."

Placing the back of her left hand across his forehead, frowning and taking it away, "your temp's definitely gone up. Any other symptoms?"

Shivering even more and sighing, "I'm freezing, then hot, then freezing. My body feels like I just went ten rounds with Ronon, I'm nauseous and my head feels like there's a marching band in there."

"Well, I'd say you've got the flu, but..." she trails off as a coughing fit, that comes out of no where has him sitting up trying to draw in oxygen.

The coughing subsiding, he slumps against the pillows and grabbing her hand with his, "Lexi, please don't call Keller."

"Oh for Christ's sake, John, you're sick. You should be under her care in the infirmary."

"I know that," he says through another set of hacking coughs, "I just…hate that place."

Tucking the blankets around him tighter, "okay, I'll compromise with you. I'll radio Dr. Keller and see if we can treat you here in your room." and at the look on his face, "and by we, I mean me."

Eyes going wide, "really, you'll take care of me?

"Yeah, John, someone should. Being that from what Sam has said, you usually take care of everyone else."

Squirming under her gaze, "Lexi, it's not that I don't want..." and closing his eyes against the wave of nausea that is threatening to make itself known, "I just..."

"I don't want to hear it. Just accept that I'm doing this." she says, as she runs her hand through his hair again.

Cracking his eyes open at her cool touch, "okay, but, how will you convince Keller?

"I'll figure something out. I can be very convincing when I have to be." she says with a smirk and standing up, "I'll be back, but," grabbing the water bottle and the pill bottle sitting on his bed side table, "take these first."

She helps him sit up, so he can take the pills and after helping him lie down again, she squeezes his hand and with a smile, heads out the door.

Watching the door close behind her and sliding further down in the bed, "well what do you know, I guess being sick has some advantages." he says out loud and just as he is getting comfortable, another wave of nausea and chills sweep over him. Shivering like crazy and cursing the fact that he feels so rotten, he tries to remember the last time he had been this sick. Not being able to remember, he sighs and closes his eyes, falling asleep in seconds.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chap. 5:

* * *

**

Lexi left John's quarters, thinking about how she was going to convince Keller to let him be treated in his quarters and by her of all people. Reaching the transporter, a plan forming in her head, "Dr. Keller, this is Dr. Carter, please come in."

"Go ahead, Lexi. What can I do for you?"

"Jennifer, I'm on my way to you now, are you in your office?"

"Yeah, is something wrong?"

"I'd rather discuss it with you face to face. I'll be to you in a couple of minutes."

"Okay, I'll be waiting." and with that the radio turns off and Keller busies herself with paperwork, while waiting for Lexi to walk into her office.

"So what's so important that you needed to talk to me face to face?" she asks, as Lexi takes the seat across from her, a couple of minutes later.

"First off, please don't be angry with me."

"Why would I be angry with you?"

"Well, I was in Colonel Sheppard's room this morning when you came by. I spent the night there."

"You did what?"

"I kept an eye on him."

Coming around to sit on the edge of her desk, looking down at her, "so even though I told you that he would be fine and would probably just sleep it off, you still stayed with him?"

"Yeah, I did. He was running temp and to tell you the truth, I don't believe that he's suffering from fatigue."

"Well then, what do you think it is?"

"From what I can tell, it looks like the flu." and inwardly smiling as this gets the reaction she was looking for, she realizes that Keller is about to radio for a med unit, "Jennifer, please don't. I know that he should be here under your care, but he really doesn't want to be in the infirmary."

Raising her voice, "I know he hates it here but, if he's sick, he should be under my care"

"Don't you think I know that? I mean for g-d's sake, I went to med school too and I'm not trying to tell you how to do your job," she can see that Keller is still angry, but plows on, "but I promised him that I wouldn't let you bring him here. I told him I would take care of him."

Laughing, "you promised him?" and getting her laughter under control, "Lexi, please, he's manipulating you to get what he wants."

"You don't think I know that too. Hello psychiatrist here. I told him I wouldn't let you bring him here, now."

"Then how do you propose we treat him?"

"He's asleep now and when I left him, he was burning up. I really do believe that he's got the flu. But as I've been told, this is Atlantis and if it's anything like the SGC, well then things will probably get worse before they get better. So, will you hear me out before biting my head off?"

"So you've got a plan, then?"

Smiling, "yes. You come back with me to his quarters. We get him started on IV fluids and sedate him long enough for us to bring him here. You run the tests you need to run and before he wakes up, we bring him back to his quarters. I promise, if it turns out to be anything other than the flu, I'll strap him down to the bed here myself."

Returning the smile, "okay, Lexi. Let's do it your way."

They get up and after collecting the supplies they need, as well as a gurney, they head for John's quarters. Within fifteen minutes they reach their destination. Lexi lets them in and they find John asleep, shivering. She walks over to his bed and puts the IV supplies and the syringe with the Ativan in it down on the bedside table, leaving the IV pole next to it as well.

As Keller watches, Lexi sits down on the edge of the bed, "John?"

_Just leave me alone and let me sleep, please. _Slowly but surely John starts to surface through the haze of heat and chills that have been keeping him hanging on the edge of sleep, but not letting him drift off completely. Feeling completely drained and utterly exhausted, he sighs to himself as he really hates being sick and he latches onto the voice that has been softly inching in on his consciousness.

A sharp stick in his hand, has his eyes snapping open, "ouch that hurt." he croaks out, looking straight at Lexi, who is sitting next to him attaching the IV bag to the IV port, which is already taped to the back of his left hand. He hears a beeping sound from his right side and turning his head on the pillow he sees Keller scanning him, frowning as she does so.

"138/82, temp 103.6" she says aloud, and looking at him "Colonel that's not good" and placing the LSD in her pocket, she goes about checking his pulse. He hears Lexi's intake of breath and turning his head again on the pillow to look at her, "I'm fine, Lexi."

Sharing a look with Keller, looking back at him and reaching for the syringe on the bedside table, "John you're not fine. So forgive me for worrying."

Looking at the syringe and then from Keller to Lexi and trying to sit up, concern and fear entering his voice, "fine I forgive you, but what is that?"

"It's just something to bring your temp down, I promise." she says, as she gently pushes him back down against the pillows, "it's going to make you really sleepy, though."

He settles down, by the look in her eyes and she injects the Ativan into the IV. He feels his headache begin to dull and he can't seem to keep his eyes open and with one last look at her, his eyes drift shut.

Standing up and walking to the doors, to go get the gurney, "all right, let's get him under that scanner." and walking out of the quarters, Keller wheels the gurney into the room, right next to the bed lowering it so that it is the same height. They shift John onto it and satisfied that he is safely on board, they raise it up and Lexi begins pushing it out of the room, Keller walking at the front of it, with the bag slung over her shoulder. As they head for the infirmary, they attempt to take a route that will minimize them being seen and Lexi radios Carter to apprise her of the situation.

"Sam, come in please."

"What is it Lexi?"

"Are we on a secure line?"

She waits and a few seconds later, she hears a click and then Carter comes back on, "okay Lexi, line is secure. What's so important that you couldn't tell me over an open channel?

"Colonel Sheppard's sick."

"What! What does he have? Is he contagious?

"Sam, calm down. As far as Jennifer and I can tell, it's just a really bad case of the flu. We're taking him to the infirmary right now. You should meet us there. Oh, and you should let Evan and the rest of his team know that he is probably out of commission for at least a week."

"Okay, will do. I'll meet you there in fifteen."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chap. 6:

* * *

**

As soon as they reach the infirmary, two nurses rush over to them and help Keller transfer John under the scanner. While they do this, Lexi stands next to the screen attached to it, marveling at the accuracy of it. Every vital statistic is transmitted to it in real time. Tearing her eyes away from it, she watches the controlled chaos surrounding him, wrapping her arms around herself as a sudden sense of worry starts to build in her stomach. Realizing what it is, she pushes it aside, as she sees Keller and the nurses wheeling John towards the back of the infirmary, where she can only assume they will be changing him into scrubs. Starting to follow them, "Jennifer, can I..."

Looking at her, over her shoulder, "no Lexi. Stay here and wait for Colonel Carter. I'll come out and talk to you, as soon as he's settled."

Nodding her head, "okay." she says, and refocuses on the screen, which is still displaying John's vitals.

A couple of minutes later, she startles as she feels a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, "oh, I didn't know all of you would be coming." she says, seeing Carter, Lorne, McKay, Ronon and Teyla all standing in front of her, concern written across their faces.

"It's Sheppard." Ronon says.

She looks at him and as she does so, "Lexi, is he contagious?" McKay asks.

"Are you sure it's the flu and not something else?" Carter asks.

"When will he be cleared for active duty?" Lorne asks.

Bombarded with the questions she has no answers for yet, "let's wait till Jennifer is done reading the scans."

xxxx

"Well, Lexi, it looks like you were right." Keller says, forty minutes later, as she walks over to the group. "The scans confirm that it's just the normal Earth flu, nothing else. He must have picked it up when you were back on Earth." she says, looking at McKay.

Lorne asks the question, before Carter can, "okay, Doc. How long will he be laid up here?"

Looking over at Lexi and back at the group at large, "well I'm going to say at least four days of bed rest and fluids. As for staying here, I'm going to respect the Colonel's wishes and let him spend the time in his quarters instead of here."

Stunned, "wait, what? Jennifer, you never let any of us get away with that." McKay whines, looking from her to the rest of the group, who all, from what he can tell are thinking the same thing, and scowling, "that's not fair."

Ignoring McKay, "so the Colonel, will be cleared for duty by this weekend?" Lorne asks again, as he never really enjoys it when his CO is out of commission and he always looks forward to him being cleared for duty.

"Yeah, Evan, this weekend." Lexi says, smirking at him.

"All right everyone, why don't you head on out. I'll radio you and let you know when we," motioning to herself and Lexi, "have the Colonel settled in his quarters."

Watching everyone nod in acceptance of the command, Lexi smiles to herself as she can see McKay muttering to himself as he walks out of the infirmary.

"Lexi?"

"Hmm."

"Were you the one that convinced Dr. Keller to allow Sheppard to stay in his quarters?"

Realizing that Carter is staring at her and turning her head to face her, "yes, Sam. I promised John that I would take care of him."

"Oh, Lexi."

"Don't Sam. He's not taking advantage of me and I've already had this conversation with Jennifer. Plus, the only stuff I have to do is paperwork and well, I can do that while he's sleeping."

"Okay, fine. But if he takes a turn for the worst..."

"Sam, you know me. The doctor in me wouldn't allow him to be in any kind of medical danger."

Sighing again, but hugging her and pulling away, "I also know that he's a charmer and I know we had this chat already, but be careful." and heading out the door, "I'll see you later."

She watches Carter walk out of the infirmary and then heads into John's room. After checking that he is still out cold, she double checks that the med bag is fully stocked.

"Shall we get him back to his quarters?"

Lifting her head up from rummaging through the bag, she looks at Keller as she walks into the room, "yeah, let's move him now. It looks like the Ativan is starting to ware off."

They move him to his quarters and once he is settled back in his bed, Keller leaves him in Lexi's hands, with strict orders to call if he gets worse.

Lexi settles down onto the couch and after wrapping herself in the blanket that she had left there earlier, she turns on her tablet. She navigates to the email client and starts reading her way through it.

xxxx

About half an hour later, John feels the pulls of consciousness starting to form. Feeling groggy and not able to remember why he feels so rotten, he tries to drop off to sleep again. But then, out of nowhere a semi familiar scent brings him to full consciousness. It smells of flowers and coconut and turning his head to his right, his eyes focus on the source of the smell. Lexi is sitting on his couch, wrapped in a blanket, her feet curled up under her fully engrossed in what she is reading on the tablet in her lap.

"Hi...Lexi," he tries to say, but his throat is so dry, that it comes out as a whisper. Swallowing a couple of times to moisten it, he tries again, "hi, Lexi."

Looking up from the tablet, smiling at him and putting the tablet down on the couch, she comes over to sit on the right side of the bed, "hiya, sleepy head." and running her fingers through his hair, "how are you feeling?"

"I've been better." he says, closing his eyes. The next thing he's aware of is the feeling of the thermometer in his ear.

Opening his eyes and seeing the frown on her face, "so what's the verdict?"

Looking up at him, "102.5 in response to that part of the question and in response to the other part. You're in here till this weekend, with me playing doctor, well not really playing."

"How'd...you convince... Keller to go...for this?" he asks, through a fit of coughs.

Grimacing, "well, let's just say, I always get what I want. And since it's just the flu and not some monster virus from another galaxy, she seemed content to let me take care of you. Evidently, you're a bad patient." she says, grimace turning into a smirk.

"Yeah, well, it's nothing against her. I just hate infirmaries."

"Don't worry, unless you take a turn for the worst, we're stuck here together." and placing the thermometer back in the bag and sitting up again, "hey, I'm starving. Would it be okay if I just run to the mess to get something to eat? How about some food?"

"I'm not really hungry."

Smiling in understanding and walking out the door, "yeah I kinda figured you wouldn't be, but we should try and get something into you. You stay put and I'll be back in twenty."

"Okay." he says, as he watches her walk out of his quarters, the doors closing behind her. He lies there for a couple of seconds, feeling shivers running through him and realizing that nature is calling, he sighs. He slowly sits up, not crazy with the idea of getting out of bed and looking down at himself, he notices that he is in a pair of scrubs. But not remembering how he got into them, _I'll have to ask her about that when she gets back_, and as he tosses the blankets off himself, another shiver runs through him, eliciting a low moan and, "man I hate being sick!"

Swinging his legs over the side of the bed and gripping the IV pole with his left hand, he stands up slowly. Feeling the head rush and gripping the IV pole tighter to keep himself upright, he waits for the room to right itself. As soon as it does so, he slowly shuffles his way to the bathroom and relieves himself. Flushing the toilet, he slowly walks over to the sink and washes his hands. After drying them off, he turns around and is working his way back to the bed, when the doors open and Lorne and Lexi walk into the room, holding trays of food.

Handing her tray over to Lorne and coming up next to him in two long strides, "John, what in g-d's name are you doing, I told you to stay put." she says, as she places her left arm around his waist and drapes his right arm over her shoulders, helping him to the bed. Reaching it, she lets go of his waist and leaning over she props up the pillows. Turning around to face him, she helps him get back in, tucking the blankets around him. Satisfied that he is settled, she takes her tray back from Lorne, who was watching the scene play out and trying not to laugh his head off.

Catching the look on Lorne's face, "what's so funny Major?"

Smiling at John and placing the tray of food on the bedside table, "nothing, sir. It's just that I've had her fussing over me. I know what it's like."

Looking from Lexi, who is now sitting on the couch eating, to Lorne, "are you joining us?"

"Oh no sir, I just helped Lexi bring the tray back. I'm on my way out. I have a date with Dr. Engle tonight."

Eyes shifting from John to Lorne, "Evan, what does she do?"

"Botanist and I'm going to be late. We were supposed to meet at 1900. Lexibeth, we can catch up tomorrow, I promise." and with a smile a wave and a "feel better, sir," he heads out the door.

"I really hate it when he calls me that." she says, through a mouthful of soup.

xxxx

Twenty minutes later, finished with her meal, she places her tray on the desk and coming to sit next to him on his left side, "so, you feel like having something to eat?"

Opening his eyes at the sound of her voice, "not really."

"It's just oatmeal, that's it and you really should try to eat it." she says, uncovering the bowl and handing it to him with a spoon.

Taking the spoon and the bowl, he attempts to eat it, all the time watching her, as she rummages through the med bag, taking out a new IV bag, easily replacing the old one with it, "Lexi?"

"Hmm."

"Where did you do your residency?"

"UCLA. I had an amazing apartment in Santa Monica, right on the beach. Whenever I could, I'd try and hit the waves, it was one of the best ways to unwind. I also hung out at the Pier. I would ride the Ferris wheel, for hours." she says, with a large grin on her face, as the memories play in her head.

Finishing the oatmeal and staring at her again, "did you say Ferris wheel?"

"What?" she asks, coming back to the present and taking the bowl and spoon from him.

"You said you like Ferris wheels?"

Smiling and looking like a kid, "yeah, the famous Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica pier. One of the all time bests."

Returning the smile, "okay," and with a yawn, his eyes drift shut.

Turning around to look at him, from where she is standing near the desk, having placed the bowl and spoon on it, she frowns at the sight of him, his eyes closed and still shivering. Walking into the bathroom, she grabs a washcloth and runs cool water over it. Wringing it out and walking back over to the bed, she sits down and places the cloth on his forehead, smiling as it elicits a low moan from him and his eyes flutter open.

"Mmm, thanks. That feels really good."

"Yeah, I thought it might."

"Hey, how did I get into the scrubs?"

"Oh, when we knocked you out this afternoon, Jennifer and I changed you into them."

They sit in companionable silence for a couple of minutes, simply staring at each other, until a coughing fit has him sitting up off the pillows, the washcloth falling off his forehead. Grabbing him by the shoulders and helping him lie back down, as the coughing subsides, "easy does it. Take slow deep breaths." she says, as he gets his breathing under control.

Groaning and handing her the washcloth, "I'm sorry."

Placing the washcloth on the bedside table and quirking an eyebrow at him, "for what?"

Sighing, as exhaustion starts to make itself known, "for this. You know, you don't have to spend the night. I can radio you if I need you."

Fixing him with a stare that could send a marine unit into hysterics, "are you crazy? I mean I know you have a temp, but I didn't think you were delusional. I'm not going anywhere." and at the look on his face, "and don't you dare feel bad about me taking care of you. I chose to do this remember."

Slouching down further in the bed, closing his eyes and reaching for her hand again, "thanks," he says. And feeling her other hand on his chest, as she leans over to gently brush her lips against his forehead, he falls asleep again.

xxxx

Lexi sits there, for a couple of minutes, watching him sleep, a little afraid that if she tries to take her hand out of his, he'll wake up. Five minutes later, positive that he is indeed out cold, she lets go of his hand and standing up, she quietly walks out of his quarters for hers. Reaching them, she showers and changes into a pair of fleece pants and a hoody that she had stolen from Lorne, when they were still dating. She grabs a pillow and the comforter from her bed, takes her headphones from her bedside table, slips on her sneakers and heads back to John's quarters. As she is walking back, someone calls her name.

"Hey Lexi."

"Hi Ronon," she says, as she shifts the comforter and pillow into her left hand, "what's up?"

"Oh, here let me help you with those." he says as he takes the comforter and pillow from her and stuffs them under his arm. Smiling and gesturing towards John's quarters, "you heading back to Sheppard's?"

Smiling at him, as each time she has seen him, he reminds her of tamed lion, but pushing the thought aside, "yeah. He's asleep again though, if you were hoping to see him."

"Oh, no. I was actually looking for you."

"Really, why?"

Smile fading, "uh, well, you see we drew straws and I got the short one. We, that is to say, McKay, Teyla and I..."

Recognizing the difficulty he is having, "you want to know what my intentions are with John?"

"Um, yeah." he says, looking at her bewildered.

Huffing, "why is it so hard for everyone to remember that I make my living reading other people," and looking over at him, "Ronon, I promise you and you can tell Rodney and Teyla as well. Right now, my intentions are just to be friends with him. I'm not looking for anything more than that."

Smile returning, "oh, Okay, good, I'll tell them."

Reaching John's quarters and standing outside of them, "you can come in you know. He might be awake."

"That's okay, let him sleep, I'll stop by tomorrow." he says, handing her the comforter and pillow again, "good night Lexi."

"Good night Ronon." she says with a smile as she watches him walk away and turning around she swipes herself into the room. Eyes coming to rest on John, "yep, still asleep," she says, under her breath, as she drops her things on the couch.

Turning around, she walks the short distance to the bed and sitting down on the edge of it, she looks him over. Frowning at how bad he looks, but not being able to resist the urge, she leans down and brushes her lips across his, smiling as she pulls back and hears him let out a little moan.

Watching him and getting lost in her own thoughts, _oh, John, I know that I promised Ronon and Sam that I wouldn't get into a relationship with you and normally I don't usually fall this hard so fast, but, there's something about you that, _and not finishing the thought, she gets angry at herself for allowing it to even enter her mind. But sitting there, running her eyes over him something stirs in her chest, _damn it John. Why do you have to look so helpless and adorable?_ and taking his hand in hers, she weaves her fingers in his and squeezes a little, smiling a little as she feels him squeeze back.

Letting go of his hand and quietly getting up from the bed, she heads over to the couch. Propping her pillow up, she lies down, covering herself with the comforter and situating herself so she can see him, she sets her watch alarm for 0530 and with one last look at him she falls asleep.

xxxx

The alarm on her watch goes off and Lexi wakes up to John walking to the bathroom, holding on tight to the IV pole. She is next to him in one swift motion, wrapping her arm around his waist, she feels the heat radiating from him and notices that he is sweating through his scrubs.

"Hey, how about a shower?" she asks, as she shifts under his arm and looks up at him, guiding him into the bathroom.

"Yeah, that sounds really good." he says, smiling down at her.

Reaching the bathroom, she helps him over to the toilet, "you okay if I let go?"

Nodding, "yeah, I can manage."

Letting go of him and stepping over to the door, "good. I'm gonna be right outside, holler when you're done."

Watching her walk out of the bathroom, "will do."

He waits until she is out of sight and after relieving himself, he shuffles over to the sink and calling over his shoulder, as he washes his hands, "you can come back in."

He smiles at her in the mirror, as she heads over to the shower and turns it on. As he dries his hands, he can see her coming over to his side, from the corner of his eye. Turning to face her, he watches as her hand goes to his, to take out the IV. The IV out, she helps him take off his scrub top.

She feels him shivering, as her hands sweep up and over with the top and she keeps her eyes on him, following every muscle and noticing the scars, from battles gone by.

_G-d, he's so good looking,_ and tossing the shirt into the hamper, heading for the door again, "I'm gonna go watch a movie. Shout if you need anything." she says, closing the door behind her. Reaching the couch, _damn it Lexi, stop it_, and picking up her tablet, she sits down, curling her legs up under her and starts watching the aforementioned movie.

He watches her walk out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her and stripping off the rest of his clothes, he gets into the shower. A low moan escaping him, as the water feels really good on his aching body, "this is great." he says sarcastically out loud and a few minutes later he steps out of the shower, reaching for the towel bar to steady himself as a wave of dizziness sweeps over him.

Once it passes, he grabs the towel, wrapping it around his waist as he walks over to the sink. Reaching for his toothbrush, he brushes his teeth and running his hands through his hair, he realizes that he doesn't have any clean clothes in the bathroom.

Opening the bathroom door, leaning against the doorframe, "hey Lexi, could you grab me some clothes?"

Looking up at the sound of his voice and smiling at the sight of him leaning against the bathroom doorframe, arms crossed across his bare chest, _oh, g-d, I could really just jump him right now,_ and getting up from the couch, silently yelling at herself, _stop it Lexi!_ she walks over to the dresser.

Opening up the top draw, she finds a pair of boxers and socks, then in the middle draw a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. Grabbing them all, she walks over to him and handing him the clothes, "feel better?"

Shrugging and taking the clothes from her, "a little, thanks." he says, heading back into the bathroom and closing the door.

Talking through the door, "so, John, I've got to go back to my quarters for a sec and then I was thinking of going to get something to eat. Is that okay?"

"That's fine." he says through the door.

"Will you be okay by yourself?"

"Yeah," he says, opening the door.

She slides herself next to him, wrapping her arm around his waist, as he puts his arm around her shoulder and they walk back over to the bed. Sitting down on it, propping himself up and motioning to her tablet, "what were you watching?

Sitting on the edge of the bed again and nodding at the Johnny Cash poster on the wall, "_Walk the Line_." and smiling at the look on his face, grabbing the thermometer from the bag and sticking it in his ear, "it's a great movie. Reese definitely deserved the Oscar for it." she says, and hearing the thermometer beep, she pulls it out, grimacing at the reading.

Seeing the grimace, "is it really that bad?"

"No, your temp's holding steady. I had hoped that the shower would bring it down a notch, though."

"Well I guess it could be worse." he says, with a grin and again gesturing towards the tablet, "hey, you mind if I watch the movie, while you go do what you've got to do?"

Smirking, "okay, but if I let you watch it, you have to promise me that you'll eat something and drink some water. I know you probably don't feel like it. But if we can keep you hydrated without the IV, I'd prefer it."

Nodding, "me too. I promise."

Getting up, she walks over to the couch and picking up the tablet and handing it to him, "I'll be back as soon as I can." and scanning him over one last time, picking up the dinner trays from the night before, she heads for the door. As they open, she's surprised to see McKay and Ronon, standing there.

"Hi, Rodney. Ronon."

"Morning, Lexi, we ah, thought we'd come by and check up on Sheppard." McKay says, with a grin on his face, a large mug of coffee in his hand.

"Hey guys," comes John's voice from inside the quarters.

"Can we see him?" Ronon asks

"Yeah, go right ahead. I was just heading out to do some things and get some food."

The two men step aside to let her leave and before she heads off to the transporter, "take it easy on him guys."

"Don't worry, Lexi, we'll be gentle." McKay says and with that the doors close and she heads off.

Ronon and McKay walk into John's quarters and immediately grab seats on the couch, pushing the comforter and the pillow off to the side.

Seeing the eagerness on their faces and putting the tablet on the bedside table, "guys nothing's happened."

"Oh really?" McKay asks, with a smirk.

"Come on Sheppard, we know you." Ronon says, smiling wide.

"Really, guys. Nothing. I've been out cold most of the time."

"It's not like you haven't flirted before, when you've been out of commission. Ah hell, you flirt twenty four seven." McKay says, fixing him with a knowing stare.

"McKay!" and running his hands through his hair, "she's Carter's niece for one thing and I don't know if you've noticed, but she's even younger then Keller."

"Yeah, but she's hot and she can fight." Ronon says, rubbing his back and looking at John.

Catching him rubbing his back and laughing, "oh yeah, I forgot that she and Teyla took you down. And yeah, I guess she's hot, but guys, come on, she's Carter's niece."

A coughing spell comes out of no where and has him sitting up off of the pillows, McKay and Ronon watch him with concern, until the fit passes and he finally settles back on the pillows.

"Hey, would one of you grab me a water from the fridge?"

"Sure." McKay says, standing up and heading over to the fridge.

Taking the bottle from McKay and drinking it slowly, "ah, thanks, needed that. So," he says putting the bottle down on the bedside table, "fill me in on what I've been missing while I've been laid up in here."

McKay and Ronon catch him up on everything that he has missed in the past twenty-four hours and then they hang out, chatting about this and that until they see him starting to fade.

"Well, we're gonna head out." McKay says, looking at Ronon, as if to say let's go.

"Oh come on guys, I'm fine, really," John says, trying to prop himself up and keep his eyes open.

"Don't be crazy! Get some sleep and we'll come back and see you later." Ronon says, as he and McKay have already reached the door.

Realizing that they are right, "sorry, guys. Crap, you know what? I actually think I'd rather be injured." he says sleepily.

"Only you would say that." McKay says, but looking back at him, they realize that he's already out cold.

They look at each other, smile and walk out of the room.

"He likes her." Ronon says, as they reach the transporter.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised by it either. She's exactly his type. I just hope Sam's okay with it."

"We should let Lexi know that he's out again"

Opening up the radio channel, "that's a good idea. Dr. Carter, please come in, this is Dr. McKay."

"What's up Rodney?"

"Ronon and I just left Sheppard's quarters. He's out again."

"Thanks, Rodney. See you later."

"Okay." he says, and as the radio link closes, he and Ronon go their separate ways, to go do what they have to that day.

xxxx

Closing the radio link, Lexi takes a sip of her coffee and looks at Teyla. They're sitting in the mess hall having breakfast.

"Rodney?" Teyla asks.

Worry flashing across her face, "yeah. He wanted to let me know that John is sleeping again."

"Lexi, he'll be fine. If there is anyone who can bounce back from something like being sick quickly, it's John."

"Thanks Teyla, I'm sure you're right."

Before Teyla can say anything else, Lorne shows up at the table.

"Good morning, Teyla, Lexibeth, mind if I join you?" he asks, with a grin and sitting down next to Lexi, he pinches her in the side.

Teyla quirks an eyebrow as she hears and sees this exchange.

"Evan, come on, you know I hate it when you call me that." and smiling at Teyla, "we used to date."

"Ah." Teyla says, understanding the exchange to be nothing more than that of close friends. And looking down at her watch, getting up and smiling at the two of them, "I have to go. Lexi, this was fun and don't worry about John. He'll be fine."

"Is the Colonel okay?" Lorne asks, through a mouthful of cereal.

Sighing and turning in her seat to lean against the railing, "he's fine. It's just the flu as Jennifer said."

Catching the emotions playing across her face, "Lexi, I know you, there's something else. Oh and nice hoody by the way. I was wondering where it went."

Looking down at the hoody, smiling and looking back up at him, "yeah, well. You always knew that I loved this one."

"Well, just be happy that I let you keep it," he says, stuffing another spoonful of cereal in his mouth and swallowing, "come on, what's got you so worried?"

Sighing again, she scans the immediate area to make sure no one is within ear shot, _well if I tell him, I'm sure he'll understand. I mean he is my best friend. And I'm sure as hell not going to tell Sam..._

Seeing her checking out the area and obviously having an inward debate with herself, "Lexi."

Taking a deep breath and focusing on him, "I'm not worried about him being sick, I'm sure he's gonna be fine. It's just..."

"You like him."

Eyes widening, "yeah, how'd you know?"

"Like I said, I know you. Besides, you're not the only one who knows how to read people."

Smiling at him, relief washing over her, "I really do like him, I can't help it. What is it about you pilots?"

"Believe me, I understand. He's something of a flirt and as far as I know, there's no one on base that he's serious about. But there have been flings."

"So he's a typical..."

"Lexi," and taking her hands in his, looking her in the eyes, "from what I saw the first night you were here, he likes you too. It was the first time in a long time that I've seen him laugh like that. I just want you to be careful. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I love you too," and wiping the tears from her face, "thanks Evan."

Kissing her wrist, like he used to do when they were together, "you're welcome." and seeing the small smile threatening to break through, "we're okay now right?

Smiling wide, "yeah,"

Getting up, "good, cause I've got to go."

"Oh hey, how was the date last night?"

Smiling down at her, "ah, wouldn't you like to know. Have dinner with me tonight and I'll tell you."

"It's a date."

"Okay, I'll radio you when I get back from off world and we can meet up."

Watching him walk out of the mess, she smiles to herself, happy that she had talked with him about how she was feeling. Taking a look at her watch, which reads 1000 and realizing that John will probably be waking up soon, she gets up, grabbing her duffel, which she had packed before she left her quarters and heads over to the food line again. She picks out a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, along with a to go cup of hot water, for the tea bag she has in her pocket from her personal stash. Satisfied that she has everything she needs, she heads for John's quarters.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chap. 7:

* * *

**

Reaching John's quarters, she lets herself in and walking over to the desk, she places the plate and hot water cup on it and plops her bag down on the desk chair. Taking out the tea bag from her pocket and placing it in the hot water, she picks it up along with the plate and heads over to the bed. Sitting down on the left side of it and leaning over to place the plate and cup on the bedside table, she frowns as John stirs.

Scanning him up and down and getting lost in thinking about the conversation she just had with Lorne, _why out of everyone on this base, do I happen to fall for the one guy that everyone else falls for?_

Hearing the soft moan issuing from his lips and refocusing on him, worry floods her stomach at the pain etched across his forehead, "John...can you hear me? John?"

Cracking his eyes open, "mmm I hear you," he mumbles and blinking his eyes some more to try and get them to focus, "Lexi?"

Leaning over to grab the thermometer, the bottle of water from the bedside table and some Tylenol from the med bag at her feet, "hey, bad dream?

Propping himself up against the pillows so that he can see her better, "yeah, not too pleasant." and sweeping his eyes over her, checking her out, he sees that she's now wearing a pair of jeans and the same large hoody she had been wearing the previous night. Focusing more on the hoody he notices that it has the Air Force logo on it and on the upper left shoulder it says 'Major Evan Lorne.'

Seeing Lorne's name on the hoody, he remembers that they had dated and the jealously monster flares in the pit of his stomach and to go along with it, a small frown plays on his lips, _of course she had to look at me at this exact moment_.

Sitting up and catching the frown, "John, what's wrong?"

Seeing the pills and the water bottle she is holding out for him, but not meeting her gaze, "I'm fine, just a headache,"

"Well those should help, it's Tylenol and drink as much as you can."

"Thanks," he says, and he slowly takes the pills.

Taking the water bottle from him, placing it back where it was on the bedside table and then sticking the thermometer in his ear, "so you up for some food? I brought some toast and scrambled eggs," she asks, as the thermometer beeps. She takes it out of his ear, reading it silently and looking back up at him from the screen, with a look not betraying the worry she is feeling at his temp, "and some tea."

Eyeing her skeptically, "I'm not sure about the food, but the tea sounds good."

Putting the thermometer back in the med bag and leaning over to grab the tea, she hands it to him, "it's a little warm, but shouldn't be too bad. It should help with getting rid of the nausea."

He takes a sip of it, smiling as it feels really good on his sore throat, "what is it?" he asks, around sips

"Honey Chamomile, it's a personal favorite. Do you like it?"

"Mmm Hmm," he says finishing it off and handing the cup back to her.

"How about the food? Remember our deal?"

"Okay, fine." he says, rolling his eyes, but accepting the plate with the eggs and toast on it. He attempts to eat the eggs, but the smell makes his stomach turn a little, so he tries the toast and realizing that he can handle the smell, he eats it all. When he finishes the toast, he hands her the plate and noticing that she had been watching him eat, he feels a little self-conscious.

"Feel better," she asks, standing and taking the plate and the teacup over to the desk.

"Yeah, actually I do. So, I've held up my end of the deal, _Walk the Line_?" he asks, motioning at the tablet, which is sitting on his bedside table.

Standing there for a second, looking at him, and fighting the internal battle that is raging in her head, _on the one hand, I could give into these feelings I'm having for him and if he hurts me at least I've been warned. But on the other hand, I don't usually do this._

Watching her intently and becoming impatient, "Lexi?"

Finally, the part of her that is attracted to him, wins out and walking to the bed, "sure, scootch over."

He slides over a little and she sits down next to him on his right side. It is a tight fit on the bed, but if they are honest with themselves, it isn't uncomfortable. She reaches over him and grabs the tablet and settling back down next to him, she props the tablet up on their legs and presses the play button.

"So, you really like Johnny Cash?" he asks, as the movie is about to begin.

Without saying anything, she smiles up at him with a wink and refocuses on the movie. Seeing the smile and the wink, he can't help himself and he puts his right arm around her shoulders, smiling to himself as she doesn't flinch at the move. Taking in her smell and feeling her body next to his, _oh, boy_ is the only thing going through his head as the movie finally starts to play.

Lying there with his arm around her shoulders, she feels the heat radiating from him. The thermometer had read 103, which was a slight tick higher than it had been, _well the Tylenol should help to bring it down,_ she reminds herself and snuggling a little closer to him and concentrating on the film, she feels him snuggle closer to her, as well, causing them to readjust the tablet.

xxxx

Halfway through the film, looking up at him, she smiles to herself as he is sleeping again. She turns off the movie and carefully slides herself out of the bed. Placing the tablet down on the bedside table, she leans over him to pull the blankets up to his shoulders, startling a little as his eyes shoot open.

Seeing his eyes darting around the room, coming to land on her, "oh hey, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you."

"Where...do you think...you're going?" he asks, groggily.

Not sure if he is completely awake and clear on what he is asking, "what?"

Shivering, "well, I just lost...some heat and I...hate to say it but I'm freezing."

Taking a closer look at him and placing a hand on his forehead, all she says is a silent _shit._

Quickly grabbing the thermometer and sticking it in his ear, she waits the couple of seconds it takes for it to take its reading. Hearing the beep, she takes it out and looking down at the screen, a low whistle escapes her lips.

"That bad, huh?" he asks, weakly.

Placing the thermometer on the bedside table and sitting down on the edge of the bed again, "yeah, and I think an IV's in order again. Because for some reason the Tylenol did absolutely nothing."

Closing his eyes and groaning, "yep, I definitely prefer being injured."

Grimacing at him and grabbing a new IV needle and bag, "John, if we don't get your temp down by tonight, I'm afraid it's a trip to infirmary."

Wincing as she inserts the needle into his left hand, "but…you promised," he says, sounding more like a little kid then he means to.

Taking his hand in hers, "I know, but the doctor in me can't keep that promise if you continue to get worse. Do no harm and all that."

Knowing that she'll keep her promise if she can, but changing the topic and from what he can tell, taking her completely off guard, "so...that's Lorne's hoody."

Completely shocked, "um, yeah, I kind of stole it from him."

"So are you guys really over?" he asks, wincing again, as the words leave his mouth and silently cursing himself, knowing that if he weren't sick, he would've never asked her this.

"Yeah, we've been over for a long time." she says, leveling a knowing gaze at him, "I still love him, but only as a brother and he feels the same way. Why do you want to know?"

"Oh, no reason in particular." but in his mind he is screaming, _yes!_ and for the briefest of moments he thinks she can read his mind, as the look of knowing quickly registers in her eyes, but it passes just as quickly. Instead he pulls her next to him again and she doesn't resist. This time, he wraps both of his arms around her, closing his eyes and even though he doesn't mean to he falls asleep again.

Lying there in his arms, listening to his steady, if slightly fast heartbeat, she smiles to herself thinking, _oh wow._ Twenty minutes later, as her stomach gives a slight grumble, she looks at her watch and realizes that it is 1300. She carefully gets out of the bed, covers him with the blankets and decides to head down to the mess.

Taking the plate and the teacup with her she leaves his quarters. As she is walking to the mess, she is so focused on everything that has just happened, that she doesn't hear Carter calling out her name. That is, until Carter is right behind her and has a hand on her shoulder.

"Lexi?"

Turning around and nearly dropping the plate and teacup as she does so, "Sam, don't sneak up on me like that. You nearly scared me half to death."

Shrugging, "well, I was calling your name."

Falling into step with her, "sorry, I was, ah, somewhere else."

Looking over at her, trying to read her expression, "Sheppard?"

Coming to a stop, "sort of and other things."

"How is he?"

"Temp's back up and I had to put the IV back in. I was just going to grab a bite to eat and then head down to chat with Jennifer."

Frowning, "I know that she said it was the flu, but do you think it's something else?"

"No," she says as they start walking again "it's definitely the flu. I just want to make sure that we're doing everything to get his temp down. I have his nausea under control and the rest of the symptoms aren't that bad, but his temp's what's worrying me."

"I'm sure it'll be okay. I have every confidence in your abilities and I'm sure Dr. Keller does as well. Otherwise, she wouldn't have let you take care of him."

Walking into the mess and heading for the food line, "Sam, I'm sure you're right, it's just well..." hesitating at how much to tell her and deciding not to tell her about how she is feeling about him, "if his temp doesn't come down, I'm gonna have to break my promise to him and move him to the infirmary."

"He'll forgive you Lexi. If there is one thing I've learned in my short time of working with him, it's that he's a very understanding person."

Sitting down at a table on the balcony, "thanks Sam."

They eat their meal and when they are done, Carter heads back to her office and Lexi heads down to the infirmary to find Keller.

xxxx

She reaches the infirmary and walks in to find Keller having a private conversation with Teyla and before the conversation is over, she sees Keller hand Teyla some pills. As Teyla gets off the gurney she was sitting on, Keller notices Lexi standing by the entrance to the infirmary, watching them and waves her over.

"Jennifer. Teyla, is everything all right?

Looking at Keller and then at Lexi, "yes, Lexi, I am fine. I have just been a little nauseous." and with a small smile at both doctors and a quick "thank you," to Keller, she leaves the infirmary.

Lexi follows Keller into her office and takes the offered seat, while Keller sits behind her desk, making a note on Teyla's chart on her tablet.

"Jennifer, is Teyla pregnant?"

"What?" Keller splutters and looking up from her tablet, "how did you figure that?"

"I put two and two together and well, what she just told me about the nausea."

"Lexi, she hasn't told anyone yet and doesn't want to. Especially Sheppard."

Smiling, "don't worry, I won't say anything, it's not my place."

Returning the smile, "good. Now what brings you in? Is Colonel Sheppard okay?"

Smile turning into a frown, "well, his temp isn't coming down."

Also frowning, "that's not good. What was the last reading?"

"104.6, and I have the IV back in. But if his temp doesn't come down soon, I'm gonna want to bring him in, so you can treat him."

"He'll probably fight tooth and nail about it, but you're right he should be here." and noticing how distracted she seems, but deciding to ask about the hoody instead, "Lexi, are you and Major Lorne seeing each other?

"Oh," seeing her looking at the hoody, "no, we're not seeing each other now, but we were. When we were back at the SGC."

Eyebrows shooting up, "really? How long?"

"A Year. I kinda stole it." she says with a smile, "Evan and I decided to break up before he left for Atlantis."

"I take it that it was mutual decision?"

"Yeah. Actually, we're still really close. He's my best friend."

"That's great," Keller says getting up, "look I have to go on rounds, but keep me updated on Sheppard and don't go getting yourself sick too."

Getting up and walking with her to the exit of the office, "don't worry, I won't."

"Good, I'll see you later." Keller says, as she heads deeper into the infirmary to go on rounds, and Lexi heads out for John's quarters.

xxxx

Entering John's quarters, worry starts to course through her as the bed is empty and she can tell that he pulled out the IV, as there are drops of blood by the bed. Walking further into the room, "John, are you here?"

Getting no answer, she turns on the spot and as she heads out of the room, she taps her own radio in her right ear, "Dr. Carter to Colonel Carter, Sam, please come in."

"Carter, here. What's wrong?"

Getting into the transporter, hitting the section for the Control room, "Sam, John's missing. I don't know where he is."

"Okay, Lexi, where are you?"

"I'm on my way to you, I should be there in five."

"All right, I'll have McKay get up here and start a scan for him. What's his condition?"

"Well, he took out the IV and the last time I checked his temp, it was up to 104.6."

"Wow. Okay, I'll also get a search team and Keller up here."

"Good idea." and a few seconds later as Lexi reaches Carter's side, "Colonel Carter to Dr. McKay. Rodney please come in."

"Go ahead Sam, what's up?"

Looking at Lexi, "Rodney, I need you to come up to the Control room, Sheppard is missing."

"What? How's that possible?"

"I don't know how, Rodney. He's in no physical shape to be able to do this."

"Oh, Lexi, you have a lot to learn. I'm on my way up."

As McKay signs off, Ronon and Teyla walk into the Control room.

"So what's he done now?" Ronon asks, crossing his arms across his chest and looking from Lexi to Carter.

"Well when I got back from lunch he was gone."

"Have you tried radioing him?" Teyla asks, looking concerned.

"He doesn't have his radio." and as she finishes speaking McKay and Keller show up. They all watch as he goes right to the computer station that Carter is standing next to and brings up the schematic of the city and starts the search for John.

A few minutes later, "I've got him."

"Where is he?" Carter asks.

"He's on the East Pier and he's not moving."

"All right." Carter says and turning to face the marines that have just arrived, "Major Jordan, take your team and Dr. Keller."

"Yes, ma'am." Major Jordan responds and with a nod, he and his team head out, with Keller.

"Colonel, we'd like to go too." Teyla says, motioning to herself and Ronon.

"Of course Teyla."

"Sam."

Looking at Lexi, she shakes her head no. Lexi frowns, but understands and she follows McKay and Carter into her office to wait.

"We've got him." comes Keller's voice over the radio half an hour later. "Lexi, we're gonna need you down in the infirmary."

They make their way down to the infirmary, all a little confused by Keller's last line.

Reaching it, they find Ronon and Teyla sitting out in the waiting room, "Teyla, what happened?"

"You should wait for Dr. Keller, Colonel."

McKay joins his other two teammates in their normal waiting formation. Ronon, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, Teyla and Rodney sitting next to each other, looking concerned, but not at all surprised and Carter and Lexi sitting next to them, concerned as well, but just a little bit surprised.

xxxx

Keller walks into the waiting room ten minutes later, looking very grim. She comes over to the group and looks at each of them, her eyes stopping on Lexi.

"Doctor, how is he?" Carter asks, standing up.

"Not good. His temp is up to 106 and he's unconscious. I have him on oxygen, as well as using ice packs to try and bring the fever down."

"But Jennifer, why did he leave his quarters and head for the East pier?" Teyla asks.

Shrugging, "I have absolutely no idea. He might have been delirious and just wandered there out of habit."

"Doc can we see him?"

"Yes Ronon, go right ahead."

"Jennifer, will he be okay?" Carter asks, as Ronon, McKay and Teyla all walk into the infirmary and into John's room taking up their usual positions around him.

"Yes, Colonel. I'm treating him with everything I can."

"Good, then I'll leave you to it. Please keep me in the loop." and with a smile at Lexi she leaves, as she is late for a briefing.

Noticing that Lexi, is still standing there in front of her and realizing that she is probably beating herself up about this whole situation, "Lexi, you know this isn't your fault."

Focusing on her, "yes Jen, it is. I shouldn't have left him alone."

Laughing and guiding her to the chairs, sitting down next to her, "Lexi, Colonel Sheppard is my worst patient. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to strap him to the bed. He hates being sick or injured more than anyone I know."

Sighing, "thanks for that, but I still feel bad."

"Don't."

Remembering that Keller had said she was needed, "why did you want me here?"

"Not me, Sheppard wanted you here," she says pointing in the direction of John's room, "he was whispering your name when we found him."

"Oh jeeze. Did anyone else hear him?"

"No. He fully lost consciousness before Ronon and the marines picked him up to put him on the gurney. I was the only one close enough to hear him." and realizing that McKay is now striding up to them and seeing the concern on his face, "what is it Rodney?"

Coming to a stop in front of them, "he's starting to thrash."

They bolt out of their chairs and are in John's room within seconds. Ronon and Teyla moving aside to allow them closer to the bed, McKay hot on their heels.

Entering the room, Lexi stops short at the sight that meets her eyes, _damn it!_ she curses to herself, taking in the paleness of his skin, the two IV's, the oxygen mask covering his face and the cardiac monitor, currently alerting them to his discomfort. But training taking over, she and Keller move to either side of the bed, checking monitors and such.

Looking at Lexi for conformation of what she believes is wrong, "he's just having some nightmares."

"Bad dreams? Come on, there's gotta be a better explanation than that." McKay says.

Watching Keller administer a sedative into one of the IV's, "nope I'm afraid not." Lexi says.

Disposing of the syringe and turning to face everyone, "guys, he's gonna be out a while, you can leave and we'll let you know when he's up." Keller says, motioning to Lexi and herself.

"He's okay, though?"

Smiling reassuringly, "yes Teyla, he's going to be fine. As a matter of fact his temp has already started to come down a little." Keller says.

Reassured that John is in good hands, the rest of the team leave the infirmary. McKay still muttering to himself about, "bad dreams."

"I'm assuming you're not going anywhere," Keller asks, smiling and turning to Lexi after the others have left.

Taking a seat in the chair that Teyla had been sitting in next to the bed, "no. I'm staying right here."

Heading for the door to the main part of the infirmary, "okay. If you need me, I'll be in my office."

"Thanks, Jen."

Stopping at the door and turning to face her, "you're welcome."

"No, not for letting me stay, but for not saying anything about what he said."

Turning, walking out the door and speaking over her shoulder, "it's not a problem."

Refocusing on John, she frowns as she can tell that even through the sedative, he's having a nightmare and taking his hand in hers, squeezing it, "John, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere." and resting her head on their hands, she falls fast asleep before she knows it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chap. 8:**

* * *

Lorne walks through the Gate at 2000 AMT, really looking forward to having dinner with Lexi and being able to catch up with her. They had had a couple of chats since she had arrived, but with the Colonel being sick and being on duty and off world, they hadn't had a chance to really sit down and have one of their typical chats. He had always been attracted to her, from the first time they had met, when he had ended up on his back and then when they were together. But, he had realized and so had she, that as a romantic couple they just didn't mesh. However as friends they were perfect and for that he would always love her.

He is so caught up in looking forward to their dinner, that he doesn't hear Colonel Carter calling his name from the Control room, until Rivers nudges him in the ribs.

"What?"

"It's the Colonel, sir." Rivers says, pointing up to Carter.

"Ah, thanks. See you at the debrief."

"Yes sir." and with that the two teammates separate. Rivers heading for the locker room and post mission check up and Lorne heading up the stairs to the Carter.

Coming to a stop right next to Carter, "Colonel, what's up?"

Gesturing to her office, "Lorne, let's talk in my office." she says, leading him into it and pointing at a chair facing her, she waits for him to take it and leaning up against her desk, "I know that you just got back, but I want to update you on what's going on."

Taking the offered seat and seeing the concern on her face, "what happened?"

"Well, Sheppard decided to play escapee."

"When?"

"Just this evening."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"Dr. Keller says that he's gonna be fine."

Sighing, "well, I'm glad he's gonna be okay. But, how's Lexi taking it?"

"Not well. I think she blames herself. She wasn't in his quarters when he flew the coup."

"Well that's Lexi for you." he says with a smile

"Evan, take care of her, please. I know you two have dinner plans tonight, but I don't know if she's gonna want to eat. Make her and if you can, get her to sleep."

A little shocked that she used his first name, as it is a rarity, but realizing that it means that this is that serious, "I'll try." and getting up and heading for the door, "I've got to go get checked out, you'll have my report by tomorrow night. Is Lexi in the infirmary?"

Standing and walking around to her chair, sitting down, "yeah, she should be and thanks."

"My pleasure." and he leaves for the locker room to shower and change.

xxxx

Lorne finally makes it to the infirmary by 2130. Walking into it and over to Keller's office, knocking on the doorframe, "hey doc, sorry about not coming here first but, Colonel Carter wanted to update me."

Looking up at the sound of his voice, "that's fine Major, we can do your scan now." and getting up and leading him over to the scanner, "I'm sure you'll want to see Sheppard as well."

Lying down under the scanner, "yeah that would be good. Is Lexi here?"

"Yeah, with Sheppard. Now hold still."

The scanner does a pass over and he sits up, waiting for the all clear.

Reading the scan, "yep, in perfect health," she says, with a smile, "they're over there." she motions to John's room at the far end of the infirmary and walking back towards her office, "see you later."

As he walks through the door into John's room, he smiles at the sight of Lexi, passed out with her head on her arm. But the smile fades as he sees John.

"G-d he looks awful." he says to himself and walking up behind Lexi, placing his hands on her shoulders, he begins to rub.

Lexi is aware of someone rubbing her shoulders and opening her eyes, lifting her head, her eyes immediately scan the monitors, all of which tell her that John is still out cold. Turning her head to see who is massaging her shoulders, she smiles as she sees Lorne smiling down at her.

"Hey, you, welcome back." she says, and standing up she takes his arm and they walk out into the main part of the infirmary for the exit, "how was the mission?"

"Eh, boring as hell. But, we got some good news out of it. How's the Colonel?"

"Not great, but getting better."

"You still up for our date?"

"Yeah, that sounds really good. Let me just let Jen know that I'm leaving."

Reaching Keller's office, "Jen, I'm going to grab a bite to eat with Evan, radio me if he wakes up."

Looking up from her tablet, "will do, Lexi. Have a good dinner."

"Thanks, we will." she says, smiling at Lorne.

Walking hand in hand to the transporter, they don't miss the curious glances being thrown at them by the other people in the corridor. Getting into the transporter, Lexi plants a huge kiss on his lips, causing all the people who were all staring to scurry away with stunned looks on their faces.

Pulling away from her and hitting the screen to send them to the mess, "oh great! That's gonna get the rumor mill going." and seeing the look of mischief on her face, he can't help but crack up laughing, as the transporter deposits them in the hallway outside of the mess.

Walking into the mess, trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard and heading for the food line, "do...you realize...what you've done?"

Batting her eyes innocently at him, as they each get their food and head over to a table, "who me?"

Glaring at her and sitting down at the table, "you know, I forgot how much trouble you can cause."

Laughing and changing the subject, "so how was the date? Tell me about, ah, what was her name again?"

Smirking and swallowing, "Dr. Engle. She's one of the botanists and we've been seeing each other now for about three months. Although, I don't know if that's going to last, now that I'm sure she'll find out about that kiss." and smiling he takes another bite of his sandwich.

Pouting and absentmindedly picking at her food, not really eating it, "I promise, if she has any problems with it, just have her come talk to me."

Noticing that she's not eating and pointing at the plate, "Lexi, eat."

Looking down at the plate, "oh, I hadn't even noticed." and picking up the sandwich, she starts eating.

They sit there eating and catching until 2410, when Lorne looks at his watch and realizing that they are alone in the mess, "hey, you ready to hit the sack?"

"Um, I think..."

Sensing her worry, "Lexi, if Colonel Sheppard had woken up, Dr. Keller would have radioed.

Playing with her napkin and not meeting his gaze, "Evan, it's just that..."

"I know, when you fall, you fall hard." and taking her hands in his, grinning, "hey, I fell just as hard for you remember?"

Chuckling at the memory, "yeah, you sure did, right on your back. It's just that..."

"What?"

Looking down at their hands and back up at him, "I'm just angry at myself."

Raising an eyebrow, "why?"

"Because, not only have I fallen hard, but I've fallen fast." and at the look he is giving her, "except for you, I've never fallen this fast for anyone. I just don't want to be thought of as easy."

Smiling, "Lexi, no one would consider you easy. In fact, I'd say they'd consider you the opposite."

"But, I've only known him for a few days and already I feel like a school girl, with a huge crush."

Laughing, "that's the John Sheppard charm." and seeing the look that she's giving him, "don't feel bad, he's a great guy, but I'll say it again. Just be careful."

"Yeah, you and Sam keep telling me to be careful. I'm a big girl you know."

Standing up and holding out his hand for her to take, "Lexi, we know that you're able to take care of yourself. We just don't want you to get hurt."

Standing up and taking his hand, "I'll be careful, Evan. I promise and thanks for the warning."

Smiling and wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they head for the transporter, "no problem."

As she weaves her arm around his waist, they make their way to the crew quarters. Which doesn't take too long as the corridors are basically empty at this time of night.

xxxx

Coming to a stop outside her quarters, swiping her hand over the door control and turning around to face him, "thanks for walking me back."

Smiling, "no problem." and smile fading, "you gonna get some sleep?"

Feeling the anger at being treated like a little kid, rising in her cheeks, "yeah, you?"

"Now don't start playing doctor with me Lexi." and catching the grimace on her face, "and don't you dare blame yourself for what happened." and drawing her into a hug, looking into her room, he catches sight of the stuffed animal sitting on her bedside table, a smile coming to his lips, as the memory of winning it for her at the fair they had gone to as their fifth date, replays in his minds eye.

Standing their wrapped in his arms, she finally gets her emotions in check and pulling away from him, she catches the smile on his face, "what are you smiling at?"

Pointing at the penguin sitting on the bedside table, "Mr. Puddles. Why did you bring him?"

Looking at him, with a straight face, "Evan, it was either Mr. Puddles or nightmares and well I prefer Mr. Puddles."

Staring at the penguin, understanding flashing in his mind, remembering that he had also been a little scared the first night he spent on Atlantis and taking her wrist and kissing it again, "alright, Mr. Puddles it is. Now sleep tight and Lexi I do mean sleep."

Mock saluting him, smiling and turning to walk into her quarters, "yes, sir and you too."

Watching the doors close behind her, he turns and heads for his quarters, smiling to himself as he walks into them.

"The Colonel has no idea what he's gotten himself into." he says out loud, twenty minutes later, as he's climbing into his bed.

Just as he reaches for his radio to take it out, it goes off, "Evan come in please."

Hitting the radio, "Lexi, is that you?"

"Yeah, I forgot to say thanks."

Chuckling under his breath, "you're welcome. Now go to sleep and I'll see you in the morning, sweet dreams."

"Sweet dreams, Evan."

The transmission over, he takes out the radio and putting it on the bedside table and rolling over onto his side, he's out cold in five minutes.

Lexi had walked straight into the bathroom after saying good night to Lorne, mentally closing the doors behind her as she did so. Before exiting the bathroom, she changes into her pjays, which she keeps on a hook on the wall and tossing her clothing into the hamper, she heads for her bed. Reaching it and seeing that her comforter and a pillow are missing, it hits her that she had left them in John's quarters. Quickly slipping on her slippers, she swipes her way out of her quarters and heads for John's. She is back in her quarters fifteen minutes later, placing her tablet on her desk and remaking her bed, she gets into it. She sets her alarm for 0630, figuring she can hit the gym before heading to the infirmary in the morning and turning off the light she grabs Mr. Puddles from the table and is asleep as soon as her head hits the pillow.

xxxx

"Dr. Carter come in please, this is Dr. Keller."

Waking up, blinking the sleep from her eyes and without turning on the light, Lexi looks at her alarm clock and she inwardly groans at the time blinking back at her, "0420." Picking up her radio and putting it in her ear, "this is Dr. Carter, go ahead."

"Lexi, I'm sorry to wake you. But you need to get down here as quickly as possible."

Sitting up, throwing the blankets off of her, she swings her legs over the bed, slipping on her slippers, "it's fine, what's the matter? Is the Colonel okay?" she asks as she turns off the alarm and getting up, grabs a hoody from her dresser and pulling it on, heads out the door.

"Yes, he's awake and his fever has broken."

Getting in the transporter and hitting screen, "and?"

"And he's asking for you."

"I'll be there in a couple of minutes. Carter out."

Getting out of the transporter, Keller's last words are ringing in her ears, "he shouldn't be asking for me." she says to herself, but walking into the infirmary, she stops short as Keller is standing there waiting for her, looking completely dead on her feet.

"Jen, are you okay?"

"Yes, just tired."

Smiling, as she knows that Keller has been just as worried about John as she was, "why don't you go back to your quarters and get some sleep. I'm sure the nurses can handle John now that his temp is down."

Hesitantly eyeing the direction of his room, "I don't know. I kind of want to keep an eye on him."

Placing a hand on her shoulder, "look, I've got this. You aren't on for another couple hours right?"

Shrugging, "yeah, I guess." and seeing the smile on Lexi's face, "and Dr. Newman is on for the rest of the night shift if you need anything."

Nodding and taking her hand off of Keller's shoulder, "see, nothing to worry about," she says, hoping that it will get Keller to leave quickly, as she wants to get to John as quick as she can.

Turning to head for the exit, but stopping and turning back to Lexi, "but, I want to keep him here until tonight (Thursday) at least."

Smiling again, "I completely agree. Now would you please go get some sleep?"

Returning the smile and turning to walk out of the infirmary, speaking over her shoulder, "all right, I'm going. I'll see you in a couple of hours and then we can brief Colonel Carter."

Watching her walk out of the infirmary, "great. Sleep tight." and standing there for a couple of seconds, she tries to reign in her feelings, knowing that if she doesn't keep them in check, they'll get her into to trouble and sighing, "I can do this. I just can't give into how I'm feeling." she says to herself, as she walks towards John's room. Although, the minute she walks into it, seeing him sitting up in the bed, deep in thought, all thoughts of being just friends, fly out the window.

xxxx

John is running over the past couple of days in his head, trying to figure out how he could have fallen for Lexi so fast. Leaning his head against the pillow, his eyes drift over to the north entrance of the room and smiling, "thanks for coming."

Sitting down in the chair and resting her right hand on his thigh, "hey, it's not like I was doing anything special."

Grimacing, "yeah, sorry about that."

Reaching for his hand and entwining her fingers with his, "don't worry about it. How're you feeling?"

Smiling at the feeling of her thumb rubbing the back of his hand, "I'm doing much better, not as hot."

Fixing him with a stern look, "you really scared me John."

Frowning, "I'm sorry, I don't really remember what happened."

"Well your temp spiked to 106 and you were probably delirious. Which is why they found you passed out on the East pier."

"Yeah, Keller told me. She also told me that I was calling your name when they got to me." he says, not meeting her gaze, but looking around the room and then down at the blanket.

"I hope she also told you that she was the only one to hear it."

Lifting his head to look at her again, "no she failed to mention that."

"John, I..." she begins, but stops herself, not knowing how to breach the topic with him, _Evan is right. I have fallen hard for him, but should I act on it or not?_ and focusing on the monitor, she sees that the numbers are increasing slightly. Worry twisting in her stomach, she quickly turns her head to look at him, the worry fading and smiling as she sees the curiosity plastered across his face.

He knew she was going to be able to tell right away that his feelings were betraying him and he silently curses the fact that his heart is beginning to race. Before he can say anything though, Dr. Newman comes running into the room.

"Colonel, are you okay?"

Letting go of Lexi's hand quickly, "yeah, Doc, I'm fine."

"And you must be Dr. Carter." Dr. Newman says, coming next to the bed and looking down at Lexi.

Standing up and taking Dr. Newman's offered hand, "yes, I am. Dr. Keller said it would be okay, if I stayed with the Colonel."

Walking out of the room, satisfied that John is okay, "yes of course and welcome to Atlantis."

Calling after him, "thanks," and turning to face John again, "so John, I think we need to talk."

Leaning his head back against the pillow and closing his eyes, "isn't that what we were just doing?"

Sitting down, this time on the edge of the bed, taking his hand in hers again, "Jen said that she wants to keep you here until tonight."

Opening his eyes and scowling, "great. I love being stuck here."

Arching an eyebrow, "oh, it's not so bad, is it? I mean having someone take care of you can be really nice."

Eyeing her curiously, "so, once she releases me, does that mean more bed rest in my quarters, with you?"

Feigning being put upon, "well, if that's what it takes to get you fit for duty again, then I guess I'll have to." and then out of no where she yawns.

"Ah, so I'm not the only one who burns the candle at both ends." he says, mock scolding her.

"Well who decided to wake up at this crazy hour?" she asks, punching him lightly in the arm.

"Hey, sick man here."

"Oh, don't even try to play that card with me." she says laughing and yawning again, she stands up, "I'm gonna go grab a cup of coffee and I'll be right back."

"Don't be too long," he says, letting go of her hand.

Smiling, "I won't, I promise." and she heads out of the room. Spotting a workstation with a coffee maker on it, she heads over and grabs a cup. Pouring the coffee into the cup and stirring in a packet of coffee-mate, she heads back to John's room.

Walking back into his room, worry floods her stomach again at the sight of him lying there with his eyes closed. But, glancing at the monitors, she smiles as his vitals have steadied out, signaling that he's asleep again. Resuming her position in the chair next to the bed, slouching down in it and finishing the coffee, she leans forward and places it on the floor. Sitting up, she leans forward, resting her head on her arm on the edge of the bed and even with the caffeine jolt she falls asleep in an instant.

Forty minutes later, at 0540, Doctor Newman walks into the room to check on John again, smiling to himself, at the sight of John and Lexi sleeping. Quietly, he goes about checking John's vitals and IV's and satisfied that he's indeed on the mend and that his temp is still down, he heads back out into the main part of the infirmary, to continue his book.

xxxx

At 0800 Keller walks into the infirmary, heading straight over to Doctor Newman, as he had caught her eye as soon as she was in the door.

Smiling and putting his pen down, as he just finished his end of shift paperwork on his tablet, "Jen, I hope you got back to sleep."

Returning the smile, "yeah, Matthew, I did. " and motioning to the tablet, "how's everything here?"

"Well, let's see." he says taking a look at the logs, "Michaels came in at 0630 with a slight sprain, evidently he fell off the treadmill. But other than that, everything is the same with the rest of patients."

Taking a look at the logs for herself, "and Colonel Sheppard?"

Smiling even wider, "in good hands."

Arching an eyebrow, "what do you mean by that?"

"Oh, Dr. Carter hasn't left his side."

"Oh really?" Keller asks, but wanting to know more about John's physical well being, "and his vitals?"

"Steady. Temp is holding at 99. He's on the mend nicely. He should be able to be released tonight, as you had hoped."

Taking the tablet and signing off on his shift, "good. Thanks Matthew, I have watch now you're relieved. See you later."

Heading out the door, "have a good day, Jen."

Keller heads into her office and checking over all the monitors, she notices that everyone indeed is doing well. She makes some notes on some research she had been working on the previous day and heads out to make her rounds.

Walking into John's room last, she is met by the sight of him awake, but leaning his head against his pillow smiling at her. Coming over to the bed, whispering, "good morning, Colonel." and moving about to take his vitals, careful not to disturb Lexi, "how are you feeling?"

Whispering back, "I'm feeling much better, thanks." and seeing that the smile hasn't left Keller's lips, which he can only assume means that she's happy with how he's doing, "do you think I can get out of here soon?"

Making some notes on his chart on the computer next to his bed, "yes, as a matter of fact, I think I might release you back to you're quarters by dinner."

"Not sooner?"

"No Colonel. You've been fever free now for about eight hours. But I want it at an even twelve or more, before I let you out of here."

"And what about active duty?"

Rolling her eyes and hitting save on the chart, "don't push your luck. You've still got two days, before I'll even consider it. How about some breakfast?"

"Yeah, that would be great."

Pleased, "really?"

"Yeah"

"Great, I'll go grab some food for you." and walking out of the room, looking over her shoulder at him, "you should probably wake her."

Watching Keller walk out of the room, he refocuses on Lexi and smiles to himself as the memory of waking up to find her fast asleep, her hand holding his, head resting on them comes back to him. Scanning her up and down, he sees that she's wearing a UCLA Med school hoody, a pair of pajama bottoms and slippers.

Her face is completely relaxed and he chuckles under his breath, _well what do you know? Someone else who can sleep anywhere. Could she be any more perfect?_ At this thought however, he catches himself, because he still can't come to grips with what he's feeling for her.

Leaning forward and gently shaking her shoulder, "Lexi, wake up."

Waking up instantly, looking at him bleary eyed for a second, before her eyes clear and lock on him, "John, are you okay?"

Leaning back into the pillow, "yeah, I'm fine. Keller just stopped by."

Rubbing the last bits of sleep from her eyes and looking down at her watch, "oh, it's 0850. Wow."

Standing up and stretching, especially her neck, as it's really sore from the position she was sleeping in, she keeps her eyes glued to him, taking in everything. Seeing that it's making him shift uneasily in the bed, she turns around, sitting down in the chair and just as she does so, Carter and Keller walk into the room, carrying trays of food.

Handing the tray she's holding to John, "here you go Colonel. See what you can get and keep down." and heading out of the room, "I'll be right outside, just got to go check on something."

Starting to eat and watching her retreating back, "thanks." he says around bites of egg.

Handing Lexi her tray and taking a seat on the other chair in the room, "Colonel, how are you feeling?" Carter asks.

Swallowing, "I'm good, thanks. Sorry about the scare last night."

"Just make sure you don't do it again, okay."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Smiling at John and then looking over at Carter, "thanks for the food. So how's everything going?" Lexi asks, around bites of her own breakfast.

"Well..." putting a hand up to her radio and speaking into it, "yes, okay, I'll be right there." and clicking off the channel, "I've got to go. Something's up in the Control room."

Shifting in the bed, as if he is going to get out of it, "I'm coming with you."

"No!" Lexi and Carter shout, at the same time.

Slumping back against the pillow, "but Colonel, if..."

Standing up from her chair and heading for the door, sharing a look with Lexi, "John, it's nothing. Just something to do with the power distribution in the desalination tanks and Rodney's having a cow." and seeing the fight leaving him, "look take it easy" and heading out of the room, looking over her shoulder, "and I'll see you two later."

After she leaves, the two of them sit there eating their respective breakfasts. Finishing his and scanning her over, he curses his feelings, as just being near her, sets his heart racing.

Letting her eyes wonder around the room as she eats, they come to rest on the EKG monitor and seeing an increase in the numbers, she smiles, "John?"

Meeting her gaze, "yeah?"

Hearing footsteps approaching the room, she lifts her finger to her lips and nods her head at door.

Walking into the room, concern etched across her face, "Colonel, are you okay?"

Rolling his eyes, "yeah, doc, I'm fine."

"Okay." she says, taking both trays and heading out the door, "just call if you need anything."

Watching her retreating back, "you know, these machines, really are a pain in the ass."

Getting up and sitting on the edge of his bed, taking his hand in hers and smiling at him, "oh, I don't know about that, sometimes they can be helpful."

Looking her in the eyes, "Lexi, I'm not sure about this."

Seeing the apprehension in his eyes, having some idea about what he's referring to, but playing dumb, "about, what?"

Shifting in the bed, trying to reign in his feelings, "about us. There are just so many variables."

Smiling coyly, "and what might those be?"

Raising an eyebrow, "well let's see, where to..."

Raising a finger to her lips again to stop him mid sentence, "shh. We're about to have visitors." and seeing him nod at her in understanding, she slides to the chair just before, Ronon, Teyla and McKay walk in the room.

"Good morning, John. Lexi." Teyla says, eyeing them, as she takes a seat on the other side of the bed.

Looking at Teyla, "morning guys." Lexi says.

Completely oblivious to the look the two women are sharing, "how you doing, Sheppard?" McKay asks coming to stand next to Lexi.

Smiling at all three of them, "I'm good, Rodney. Thanks." and shifting a little in the bed, "actually Keller says I'll be out of here by tonight, but no missions until this weekend."

Looking at John with a warm smile, "John, I am glad you are better. You had us all very worried." Teyla says standing up and resting a hand on his leg

"Thanks Teyla and I'm really sorry about it." John says, and seeing Keller walking in the room again, "ah here comes the time warden now."

Crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at him, " oh, very funny Colonel." and looking at everyone else, "all right guys, the Colonel needs his rest. You can come by and escort him back to his quarters this afternoon." and as everyone says their good byes, "Lexi, can I have a word?"

Getting up from her chair, smiling at John, Lexi follows Keller into her office and takes the offered seat, "what's up?"

Leaning against her desk, "I've changed my mind and I'm going to release him this afternoon. His temp is staying down but I want him on strict bed rest and fluids for the next two days. Do you mind taking care of him again?"

"Of course not, it's just."

"I told you not to blame yourself, it's just what he does. It doesn't mean that you did anything wrong."

"I guess so." and standing up, "anyways, I'm gonna head to the gym for an hour and then change. I should be back around 1400. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, I'll have him ready to move by then."

Heading out of the office and stopping at the door, "great. I'll just go let him know. See you later and thanks."

Watching her stop at the door, "no problem."

Walking into John's room, she smiles as she sees him lying there, his eyes tracking her as she comes to stand next to the bed.

"So, what's up?" he asks.

"I'm gonna go hit the gym for an hour and when I get back, we'll get you back to your room. Sound good?"

Face lighting up, "you mean I'm actually getting out of here early?"

Chuckling at him, "yeah and if you're good, maybe we can finish _Walk the Line_."

Smirking, "excellent. Have fun at the gym. Oh, if Ronon's there, knock him around for me."

"Are you serious?" she asks, but at the look he gives her, "I'll see what I can do." and she heads out of his room for the exit.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chap. 9:

* * *

**

Reaching her quarters and putting out her hand to swipe herself in, she turns around hearing Lorne call her name.

Shouting it down the corridor, "hey Lexibeth." he says, smiling and pulling her into a hug as he reaches her.

Pulling away from him and rolling her eyes, "seriously, Evan, stop calling me that." and swiping them into her quarters, "what's up?"

Smiling but crossing his fingers behind his back, "okay, I'll stop," and following her into the room, "I was just coming to see you in the infirmary to get an update on Sheppard's status. But Keller said you were heading here."

Heading over to her dresser to grab her workout clothes and turning to see him plop himself down on her couch, "well, he's gonna be released this afternoon and back on active duty sometime this weekend." and noticing for the first time that he's wearing sweats, "are you heading for the gym?"

"Yeah, I am." and seeing her holding her work out clothes, "you too?"

"Yeah," she says, heading for her bathroom to change, "you up for a sparring session?"

"Well, I don't know."

"Ah come on Evan," she says from inside the bathroom, "it'll be fun," and walking out of the bathroom, coming to stand right in front of him, "and you can show me some new moves."

Looking her up and down, "I highly doubt I can show you any new moves. Besides, the last time we sparred, I ended up with three stitches to my hand."

"Oh, okay. No sticks this time." she says, pulling him off the couch and dragging him towards the door.

They walk to the gym, chatting about this and that and entering the gym they head for the mats.

"So, you ready?" she asks, bowing to him.

"As I'll ever be," he answers, returning the bow and starting to circle around the mat, keeping his eyes trained on her.

Lunging forward, she swings her right hand towards his head, only to have him block it. After blocking her punch, he throws one of his own, aiming for her stomach, but she blocks it. Twenty minutes later, a crowd starts to form a circle around them, however they are so engrossed in blocking and throwing punches and kicks to notice.

xxxx

Forty minutes later, each of them starting to tire she sees him drop his guard slightly and she takes the advantage. Stepping forward, she hooks her right leg behind his and brings him down to the mat with a thud. He lies there for a couple of seconds, with her hand on his throat and it is at this point that they realize that they have everyone's attention.

From his position on the mat, "ah, Lexi, I think we caused a spectacle."

Releasing her hold on his throat and looking around and back down at him, "well don't we always?"

Looking in her eyes, he starts laughing and soon enough, they are both laughing hard, to the surprise of everyone there. Getting her laughing under control and standing up, she offers her hand to him, to help him up. Taking it and letting her heave him up to his feet, they take a bow and the whole crowd starts to clap and whoop, thoroughly having enjoyed the fight. As the crowd brakes apart, they see Ronon and Teyla heading towards them.

"Remind me never to get on your bad side Lexi." Ronon says, handing them towels.

"Ronon, she doesn't have a bad side." Lorne says, taking the bottle of water that Teyla is handing him and taking a large swallow, "that's just how she fights, I usually end up on my back when I fight her." he says, nudging her in the side.

"Evan, it's not my fault you fly boys won't hit a girl." and looking at Ronon and Teyla "honestly, when I was back at the SGC, it was the same way."

"Are you two done with the mats?" Teyla asks.

"Yeah." they say at the same time and looking over at Lorne, she matches his smile and focusing on Ronon and Teyla again, "oh, by the way, John is being released around 1400 today. If you two want to help me get him back to his quarters."

"We'll be there." Ronon says, as he heads over to grab two pairs of sticks.

"Good. Teyla, I actually need to talk to you about something. Could I have a quick word with you later?" and at the look on Teyla's face, "it's nothing bad."

"Sure Lexi, I'll meet you in the mess in an hour."

"Great. Evan, you're heading off world again, right?"

"Yeah, it's just a quick supply trip."

"Okay, then I'll see you later." she says, giving him a kiss on the cheek and as Teyla and Ronon go off to their sparing session, Lorne heads off to the locker room and Lexi heads back to her quarters to shower and change.

xxxx

Walking into the mess at exactly 1300 Lexi heads for the food line. Taking a tray with a tuna sandwich, an apple and an iced tea, she heads for an empty table and sits down. Placing her tablet next to her tray and opening up the email client, she starts to read through them, as she digs into her meal. Just as she is about to take another bite of the sandwich, Teyla sits down across from her, placing her tray down as well.

"So, what is it that you wanted to chat with me about?"

"Well," looking around the mess hall to make sure that no one is looking at them and lowering her voice, "I know."

Raising an eyebrow, "you know what?"

Eyes scanning the room once more and positive that no one is listening, she takes her right hand and patting her stomach and pointing at Teyla's, "I know."

Expression changing from one of confusion to one of concern, "did Jennifer tell you?" she asks in barely a whisper.

Placing her right hand on Teyla's arm and smiling at her sincerely, "no, Teyla. Jen didn't tell me anything she has kept her promise to you. I figured it out for myself and the other morning when you were in there getting those pills, it only confirmed my suspicions."

"You won't tell anyone, will you? I just haven't figured out how I'm going to tell them yet."

"It's not my place to tell anyone, your secret is safe with me. But just so you know, I'm here if you want to talk."

"Thank you, Lexi. I think I will take you up on that offer. I know I'm going to find them, but it's still..." she sighs and taking a bite of her food, she tries to collect her thoughts.

Catching the pause in speaking as the sign of uncertainty that it is, "it's still difficult?"

Nodding and taking a bite of her food, "yes."

Gently squeezing her arm, "I'm assuming that the father of the child is among the missing?"

Staring at her in shock, "yes, how did you know?"

"Well, the chatter that takes place on a base like this is a little difficult to ignore and I knew that it wasn't Ronon or John. You just don't have that type of relationship with them."

With a little bit of a chuckle, "Lexi, you are very perceptive."

"Teyla, it's what I do for a living and I've had lots of practice." and seeing that McKay and Ronon are on their way over to the table, "and I think we should continue this conversation at a later date." she says, flicking her eyes over in the direction of the two men.

Seeing what she is referring to, "yes, let's." and as Ronon and McKay sit down at the table, "hi guys."

Eyeing the two women as they sit down, "what were you talking about?" McKay asks, taking a bite of his food.

"Oh, nothing Rodney." and changing the topic, "are all of you going to escort John back to his quarters?" Lexi asks, having finished her food and focusing on her tablet again.

"Yeah." Ronon replies through a mouthful of food.

With a nod Lexi refocuses on her tablet and goes about reading and answering them, all the while listening in on and joining the conversation between the three teammates. Forty minutes later they all head for the infirmary, Ronon and McKay walking ahead of the two women.

Not missing the fact that Teyla still seems a little unnerved that someone else now knows her secret, "Teyla, are you okay?" she asks quietly, so as not to alert Ronon and McKay that they are talking.

Motioning at the two men in front of them, "it's just...I don't know how they'll react when I do tell them, especially John."

Smiling, "I'm sure they'll be happy for you."

Frowning as worry creases her forehead, "I am not so sure."

"Well," as they all reach the infirmary, "as I said earlier, I'm here when you want to talk some more."

"Thanks, Lexi."

xxxx

Keller was in her office, typing something on her computer and noticing this on the way to John's room, Lexi lets the rest of his team go over to him, while she walks over to Keller.

"Knock, knock." she says tapping the doorframe, "so is he ready to be discharged?"

Looking up from her computer, "yeah, and I know that I've already told you. But it's two more days of bed rest and fluids." she says, as she stands up and walks out of the office with Lexi next to her.

"I think I can handle that. Although I don't know how cooperative he's gonna be." she says pointing at John, who is amicably talking with his teammates and still looks like hell.

Chuckling, "welcome to the wonderful world of treating John Sheppard."

Looking over at the two doctors, at the sound of his name and breaking into a wide smile seeing them smiling at him, "so, I'm getting out of here?"

Lexi and Keller share a look of amusement, which John doesn't miss and looking from one woman to the other, "okay, what's going on?"

"Nothing John. So, you ready to head back to your quarters?" Lexi asks, as Keller walks up to his side and takes his temp one more time.

"Yes, most definitely yes. Oh, come on doc, I'm good."

Looking down at the thermometer, "yes, you are. No fever going on 12 hours now. All right, you're good to go, but Colonel," looking from Lexi and back at him, "if Lexi even thinks you're not doing better, it's right back here, until you're fully recovered."

"Fine doc." and with one of his patented smiles, he quickly stands up and starts heading towards the door, only to stop short as Lexi and Keller are standing in his way.

"Oh no you don't Colonel, it's a wheel chair for you. I have to insist." Keller says, a stern look on her face.

He looks at Ronon, who is standing right beside him and then at McKay and Teyla, who are standing behind him, as if expecting him to topple over, "you've got to be kidding me. Come on, I feel better than I have in days."

"I know that you do. But, you just had a fever of 106 yesterday and trust me, your body is going to reassert the fact that you're still sick, very soon."

As Keller is speaking, Lexi wheels over a wheelchair and placing it behind him and locking the wheels, she comes around in front of him and lightly pushes him into it.

The look of surprise on his face has his teammates in shock, knowing that if he weren't sick, he would have slugged her right then and there. As it is, he is shooting daggers at her. Lexi for her part, smiles at him and leaning over with both hands resting on either arm of the wheelchair, whispers something in his ear.

His teammates and Keller watch this scene unfold with a mixed look of shock and concern and as John slouches back into the chair, with a grin on his face, "let's go."

Standing up and walking around to the back of the wheelchair, unlocking it and pushing him out the door, "Jen, I'll keep in touch." and looking at Ronon, Teyla and McKay, "you guys coming?"

Sharing one more look of surprise with them, Keller smiles and heads into the main part of the infirmary to go on rounds.

Ronon, McKay and Teyla follow Lexi and John out of the infirmary to the transporter.

"What do you think she said to him?"

"I don't know Rodney. But I'm sure it was something they won't want to talk about." Teyla answers.

Reaching the transporter, Lexi turns John around, so she can back into it and as she does so, the three of them catch the grin that's still on his face, shooting him looks of, "what aren't you telling us?"

Seeing the looks, "what?"

"Nothing, buddy." Ronon says, with a large smile.

Stepping out of the transporter, McKay takes the wheelchair from Lexi and he and Ronon wheel John the rest of the way, allowing Teyla and Lexi to walk behind them.

Gesturing to John, "Lexi, how did you get John to agree to the wheelchair?"

"I told him we could watch a movie."

Quirking an eyebrow, "is that all? Because it's usually a fight to get him into one of those."

Grinning, "that's it."

"Well, I guess we should have tried that a long time ago." Teyla says, with a chuckle and they reach the men, just as Ronon puts a hand on John's shoulder to stop him from getting out of the chair.

Seeing this, "and what seems to be the problem here, boys?" Lexi asks.

"Sheppard, won't stay in the chair and let us wheel him into the room." McKay answers.

Looking up at all of them, a pout on his face, "guys, I'm here, I can walk to my bed." and looking at Lexi, "right, Lexi?"

Catching the pleading in his voice and knowing that he needs to do this, "Ronon, let him. It's okay."

Taking his hand off John's shoulder, "okay. Suit yourself."

Getting up from the chair, handing Lexi's tablet to McKay, John swipes them into his quarters. Slowly but surely heading over to his dresser, he pulls out a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, "you guys can hang out. I'm just gonna change out of these scrubs."

Following him into the room, Ronon, McKay and Teyla all take up seats, while Lexi parks the wheelchair outside of the quarters. She comes back into them and takes her tablet from McKay, placing it on the bedside table. Seeing the med bag still sitting on the floor, she picks it up, as well as the IV poll and as she walks to the door, "guys, keep an eye on him for me. I'm gonna bring all of this stuff back to the infirmary. I'll be right back."

From inside the bathroom, John hears her starting to leave and the voice in his head, that has been switching between not wanting to get involved and wanting to get involved, starts screaming, _no!_

As quick as he can manage, he opens the bathroom door and stepping through it, he sees Lexi just about to exit his quarters. He catches Ronon's eye, conveying what he wants without having to say a word.

Ronon, immediately understanding what he wants, catches Teyla's eye, who looks from him to John and with a smile, she stands up and quickly walks over to stop Lexi from leaving, "ah, Lexi, why don't you let us take everything back to the infirmary."

Stopping just short of walking through the door and turning to face everyone, "it's fine guys. I don't mind."

"No Lexi, you should stay and watch after Sheppard. He looks like he's about to pass out." McKay says, as he also gets up and walks over to her.

Glaring at McKay, but smiling as he sees the three of them smiling at him, "yeah, Lexi, let them take it." and looking at her, figuring he can play along with the best of them, "I don't want to end up back in the infirmary, so soon after gaining my freedom."

Realizing what's going on and playing along as well, "well, we should get you into bed asap." and as she sees the three of them nod in approval and head out of the room, she walks over to John, who is leaning against the doorframe of the bathroom and standing in front of him, "you know, I would have thought you'd want to spend some time with your team."

"I spend practically every day with them. A break every now and then isn't so bad. Besides," pulling her to him, "I thought we could finish that conversation we started back there." and pulling her even closer, wrapping his arms around her and resting his hands on the small of her back, "is this okay?

Clasping her hands together around his neck, she hesitantly whispers, "yes."

"Good." he says and he leans down and kisses her passionately.

In that one moment, all the worries that each of them had been having about doing exactly this, melt away. Slowly they make their way over to the bed, kissing each other. Reaching it, she gently pushes him down on it and sliding out of her shoes, smiling, she climbs on top of him. Lowering herself down, they continue kissing each other, for a couple of minutes, learning each other's pleasure points. Pushing her up into a sitting position, he pulls off her shirt to reveal her bra and he slowly traces his lips over her toned stomach. Leaning down, she pulls him into a sitting position, so they are inches apart and pulling his shirt up and over, she kisses her way up to his mouth. Extracting themselves from the rest of their clothing and lying down in each other's arms, they make love.

A little while later, lying under the blankets in his arms, her head resting on his chest, "you doing okay?" she asks.

Turning his head and kissing her forehead, "yeah. A little tired, but wow. You?"

Propping her head up on his chest and looking him in the eyes, "I'm great and yeah, wow sums it up really well. But we really need to talk."

Sighing and closing his eyes, knowing that she's right and they do need to talk, but starting to feel exhaustion inching in, "can't it wait till later? I don't want to think right now."

Resting her head again on his chest again, "yeah, okay." she says, as she feels him drifting off to sleep. Lying there in his arms for a couple of minutes, silently admonishing herself for what they had just done, the little voice in her head speaks up, _but you did enjoy it and no one has to know. _


	10. Chapter 10

**Chap. 10:

* * *

**

Almost three weeks later, Lexi is in session with Katie Brown. Sitting there listening to Katie talking about her relationship with McKay she finds herself zoning out. Inwardly she shakes herself, using all of her mental reserves to bring her focus back to what Katie is saying.

_Ten more minutes_. she tells herself and refocuses on Katie, asking a couple more thought provoking questions and before she knows it the last ten minutes are up. Glancing down at her watch, "Katie, I know Rodney. Don't take offense by it."

Standing up, "you're right Lexi. I'm just being silly."

Standing up as well and walking with her to the door, "you're not being silly. Just don't worry about it and I'll see you next week."

Swiping the doors open, she's a little surprised to see John standing there. Shooting him a look of curiosity, as she hadn't missed him quickly hiding something behind his back as soon as the doors had opened.

"Colonel, what are you doing here?" Katie asks.

Stepping aside to let her pass, "um, I need to get Dr. Carter's thoughts on a situation I'm having with one of the marines."

Smiling and walking out of the office, "oh, okay. Thank you, Lexi, see you next week."

Watching Katie walk away from them, "yes. See you." and as she mentally shuts the doors, she turns around to see John, stepping up close to her. Pulling him into her, she melts, as he kisses her.

A couple of minutes later, pulling away from her, but not taking his left hand off her waist, "I thought she'd never leave."

"Tell me about it." she says, and leaning in close, she kisses him again and pulling away from him, taking his hand from her waist, they walk over to the couch and sit down.

Eyeing him suspiciously, "so what really brings you by? Since I've been here, you've yet to come here for anything other than, well you know."

They had had the conversation after that first night together. John had told her he wasn't really sure if he was ready for a relationship and Lexi understood where he was coming from. Instead they agreed to be friends with exclusive benefits, for the time being. Since the talk, they had been seeing each other whenever he wasn't off world and their schedules actually meshed. They had taken to sleeping in each other's quarters, although it was usually in hers, as she had a bigger bed and every now and then they would meet up in her office. They were relieved, as well, that they had managed to keep their relationship under wraps.

Bringing his right hand around and holding it in front of her, fist closed, "close your eyes and give me your left hand."

Looking at his hand apprehensively, "John, what are you doing?"

"Lexi, just close your eyes and give me your left hand." and smiling, "trust me."

Staring at him for a couple of seconds more, she holds out her left hand, palm facing up and closes her eyes. She feels him place something in her hand and opening her eyes and looking down, she smiles at what is now lying in it, "oh, John."

"Well," he says, shrugging, "I thought you'd like something that reminded you of me."

Running her fingers over the dog tag and taking a closer look at it, she notices that it has her initials a dash and his. Looking up at him from the dog tag, she catches the smile and the warmth looking out at her from his eyes and she leans in and kisses him.

Pulling away, "you like it?"

"I love it." and turning around and handing it to him, "can you help me put it on?"

He takes the tag from her and unhooking the clasp he raises his arms up so that he can place it around her neck, kissing the nape of her neck as he finishes clasping the chain together.

Turning back to face him, "it's perfect." and placing the tag under her shirt, "I'll never take it off."

"Good, I'm glad." and eyeing her tablet on her desk, "so, when's your next appointment?"

Looking at the clock on her desk, "in fifteen. I've got a pretty full day today. What you up to?"

"I've got to go meet Rodney in the Control room. Something about a new program for the Gate but other than that not much. You feel like grabbing lunch?"

"Yeah, how does 1330 sound?"

Leaning in and kissing her, "great, I'll meet you in the mess." and pulling away and standing up "you really like it?"

Standing up too and clasping her arms around his neck, she leans in and kisses him hard, "what do you think?" she asks, pulling away with a smile on her face.

They kiss some more and after a couple of minutes, "ugh, all right, time to go see what McKay has done now."

Walking with him to the door, "be good, John. You know he only does it because you're approval is, even though he won't admit it, really important to him."

"You, know what?" he says, squeezing her hand and looking at her, "sometimes it scares me how perceptive you are."

Squeezing his hand back, "hey, why do you think I became a shrink? Now get, or he'll freak out if you're not there on time."

Laughing, "you're right. Okay, I'm going." and not letting go of her hand but pulling her into a hug, "this is me walking out the door." and feeling her push him away, seeing the annoyed smile on her lips, "are my feet actually moving?"

Playfully pushing him towards the door, "go, get out of here." and rolling her eyes at the look he's giving her, "I'll see you later, Colonel."

"So professional?" he asks, feigning hurt as he walks out of the office and with a wink and a smile over his shoulder, he heads for the transporter, the door closing behind him.

xxxx

As he's walking to the Control room he absentmindedly smiles and greets various members of the expedition, as they pass by him saying hellos. Completely in his own little world, really thinking of Lexi. Finally the sound of McKay grumbling to Zelenka, as he reaches the top of the stairs of the Control room, brings him out of his thoughts to the present.

Walking over to the two men, "hey, McKay."

"Ah, Sheppard, you're here. Good."

Standing next to the console that McKay is working on, "so what's so important that you needed me here?"

"Well, I've come up with a streamlining program designed to boost its," pointing to the Gate "operating efficiency." and seeing the look on John's face, "look, the Gate'll be offline for, what one hour, two hours tops."

Before John can say anything however, the Gate starts to dial in. As it kawhooshes he and McKay look at it, seeing the shield activate.

Turning to Chuck, "we expecting someone?" John asks.

"No, sir, but it's Major Jordan reporting in from M34-227."

"You got video?"

"Yes, sir."

Chuck lowers the shield and activates a view screen nearby. John and McKay walk over to it, as Major Jordan appears on the screen.

"What's the situation, Major?"

"Well, sir, there's someone here who would like to have a word with you."

McKay frowns in confusion as Jordan steps out of the way. A couple of seconds later, Elizabeth walks into view. Causing their eyes to widen in disbelief.

"Elizabeth!"

"Hello, John."

"Elizabeth! What happened to you? How did you get away?" McKay asks.

"I'm not Elizabeth. Well, not the Elizabeth you knew. I have all of her memories and all of her thoughts, everything that makes her me. But I'm a duplicate. I was created by a faction of the Replicators as a means to attaining ascension."

"But you...look and sound just like her."

"I'm sorry, Rodney, but it's true. This group managed to isolate themselves from the others in order to pursue their study in secrecy, but they were eventually discovered and destroyed."

"I...don't know what to say. This is all very, uh..." John says, fumbling for the word.

"Strange? Yeah, I know. But we need to meet. We have some information that you can use against the Replicators."

"We?"

"Yes John, there are some "people" that you need to meet. Can you get here quickly?"

"Sure. Yeah."

"Good, we'll be waiting." and before the feed cuts out, "you need to hurry."

As soon as the screen goes blank, John turns to McKay and tapping his radio, "Ronon, Teyla, gear up, we leave in twenty," and as the two of them head out for the locker room, he shouts over his shoulder to Chuck, "let Colonel Carter know what's going on."

While they are walking to the locker room to get ready, John remembers that he has lunch plans with Lexi, "Dr. Carter, come in please."

"Go ahead, John."

"Lexi, something's come up and I'm gonna have to take a rain check."

"Okay, be safe."

Closing the radio link he and McKay walk into the locker room, where Teyla and Ronon are already getting ready. Ignoring the looks McKay keeps throwing his way, he heads over to his locker and gears up.

xxxx

Twenty minutes later, coming out on the other side of the Gate, Elizabeth and Major Jordan and his team meet them.

"Major, hold the Gate. We'll keep in radio contact."

"Yes, sir."

"Elizabeth, it's good to see you."

"Thank you, Teyla. But, pleasantries aside, we must hurry. Follow me."

She leads them to a tent, where the Replicator versions of the team are waiting. The two teams stand there, staring at each other, not saying anything. Realizing the awkwardness of the situation, Elizabeth, tries to break the silence, "well, I suppose introductions aren't really necessary."

"Great! The last time I came face to face with myself, I ended up kicking my own ass." John says, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Ronon walks over to face his Replicator self and they stand toe-to-toe, glaring at each other.

RepliMcKay looks admiringly at McKay's leather jacket, "nice jacket!"

"Uh, yeah, it's new. We got new versions of those uniforms. The old ones used to..."

"...bunch up under the arms."

"Yeah."

"Huh!"

After watching this exchange, John turns to Elizabeth, "you said you've got something for us."

"Yeah. McKay." RepliSheppard says.

Both McKay's look at him and the real one answers, "hmm?"

"No, my McKay." says RepliSheppard

"Oh, yeah, right," and clicking his fingers, he walks to a different part of the tent to fetch something.

The Ronons are still staring at each other, the real one smiling humorlessly. RepliMcKay brings a gray square item, over to the group.

Teyla, noticing what he has in his hands first, "what is that?"

"This is the core drive of a Replicator ship tracking system. Once it is up and running, we'll be able to track every Aurora-class Replicator ship in the Pegasus galaxy." RepliMcKay explains.

"It's not much, but it's a start." RepliSheppard says.

"Are you kidding? This is huge! We can get working on a..."

"...Modification program..."

"...Uh, reconfigure the base sequencing..."

"...Run it through one of the Ancient relays so the information's..."

"...Automatically adapted and outputted."

"Outputted? Is that even a word?" John asks, mocking McKay.

"Of course it is!" McKay says, indignantly.

"We can't both be wrong."

John grimaces at them and RepliMcKay speaks up again, "look, we need to get started on this now."

"Whoa, whoa. Not so fast." RepliSheppard says looking at the real John, "where do you plan on doing this? We're too big of a security risk to be allowed back on Atlantis."

Looking from his double to the two McKay's, "he's got a...I've got a point. You two are gonna have to find another way to do that."

"It's not a problem," McKay offers, "I'll just go back to Atlantis and get what we need. We can do all the work right here."

"Oh, this is great!" RepliMcKay says, "finally, someone in whom I can have a hundred percent confidence! I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to working with you!"

"And this is just the beginning!"

Both Sheppards grimace at each other, as RepliMcKay boasts, "humanity's about to benefit from one of the greatest living scientific minds times two!"

To which, McKay responds, "can you imagine?"

"I'm trying not to." RepliSheppard replies.

Grinning, McKay stands aside and gestures for his double to head towards the exit of the tent. Smiling happily, RepliMcKay leads him outside.

Watching the two McKay's walk out, John turns to face the rest of the Replicator team, "we appreciate all this, but the truth is, we came here for another reason. You were with the Replicators. What do you know about our Elizabeth and are you willing to help us get her back?"

RepliSheppard and Elizabeth look at each other, wondering which of them should break the news.

A little while later, John and Elizabeth are walking through the forest together, talking, "you think this other Keller was telling the truth?" John asks.

"I don't know why she'd lie."

Considering this for a second, "it's kinda weird, that's all. I mean, I don't see you for all this time and then five minutes later I find out."

"That I'm dead. Yeah. Don't worry, the moment I learned the truth, I knew there'd be no going back the way things were, not for me, not for any of us."

As the two of them are walking together, both sets of Ronon and Teylas are scouting out the forest separately, each set talking about how weird this whole situation is. Eventually running into each other, the Replicator versions, decide to go back to the tent, as the real versions decide to go look for John and Elizabeth.

John and Elizabeth are still walking through the forest, talking about the situation.

"It's not like this hasn't happened before. The other Elizabeth got infected by those little nanite things and we figured out how to stop 'em somehow. Maybe we can do the same for you."

"So we wouldn't be a security threat?"

Grimacing, "you can contribute. Things'll just be...different."

Sighing and shaking her head, "that's not really the issue, John. I guess what really bothers me is just knowing that you and the others will always consider me less than what I really am."

A deep humming sound begins, but they don't notice it. They simply continue their conversation.

"That's not true."

"Of course it is, and I don't blame you."

John finally hears the sound, but not sure what he's hearing, "d'you hear something?"

Before Elizabeth can respond, "Colonel Sheppard, this is Teyla. Please respond."

"Go ahead, Teyla. What's wrong?"

"The Replicators are here."

"They managed to track the ship." Elizabeth says, worriedly.

The two of them make their way to a clearing and as they look up at the sky, to see if they can see anything, Teyla's voice comes over the radio again, "John, do you hear me?"

"Oh, yeah, I heard ya."

A Replicator warship comes into view and upon spotting it, "our ship must have had a hidden sub-space transponder."

Looking at the ship, "all right, run." John says.

They race off into the forest, as the ship fires drones towards the ground. The drones hit the ground all around them, but luckily they don't score a direct hit. They continue to run and evade the falling drones and within moments they run into Ronon and Teyla. The four of them stop and John asks, "where's McKay?"

"He's still at the compound." Ronon answers.

Tapping his radio, "Rodney, this is Sheppard. We need you to fall back to the Gate immediately."

"Colonel, this is Major Jordan. The Gate is a no-go. I repeat, the Gate is a no-go. There's a Replicator ship in position ready to take us out the second we show ourselves."

"All right, everybody fall back to the Jumper. Rodney, did you hear me?" John commands.

"Yeah, I heard you. We're on our way."

"John." Elizabeth says, pulling him up before they can all start running again, "regarding the Gate, they have us trapped. Even cloaked, if the Jumper so much as rustles a bush, they will pinpoint our position and blast us out of the sky. We need a diversion."

"What did you have in mind?"

"I will take the Jumper with the others and activate the Gate. We'll lead the Replicator ships away from the Gate, giving all of you enough time to make it through on foot. We'll all have a better chance this way."

"I don't want you doing this because you feel any less, uh..."

"Human?" she finishes for him and looking at him, her eyes determined, "from the beginning we've been trying to convince ourselves that we're just like you." and smiling, "now we've got a chance to prove it."

"All right. Let's go." John says, inwardly hoping that this plan works.

Both teams meet up at the Jumper and once they say their goodbyes, the real team taking the core drive, they head for the Gate to meet up with Major Jordan's team. The Replicator team and Elizabeth board the Jumper and fly over the Gate, right in front of one of the Replicator warships. As both warships abandon the Gate to chase after the Jumper, the Gate activates and John leads everyone through it. But not before, seeing the Jumper plunge to the ground, after being hit by two drones.

As Team Jordan and Team Sheppard run through the Gate, John looks up to the Control room shouting, "shut it down!" and as the Gate shuts down, he looks at the rest of his team and with obvious hurt in his voice, "no one else is coming."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chap. 11:

* * *

**

Carter is sitting in her office when the Gate alarm goes off. Running out into the Control room to the all to familiar words "unscheduled off world activation."

Looking from the Gate to Chuck, "who is it?"

"It's Colonel Sheppard's IDC, ma'am."

"Lower the shield." she tells him, as she runs down the stairs. As she reaches the bottom, she hears and sees John yelling, "shut it down! No one else is coming."

"Colonel, what happened? Did you find Dr. Weir?" Carter asks, as Major Jordan and his team leave on her nod.

"Sam, it didn't go well and it wasn't the real Elizabeth, to begin with." McKay answers, as he can tell that John is still trying to digest what just happened.

Looking directly at him, confusion written across her face, "what do you mean it wasn't the real Elizabeth?"

"She was a Replicator." John says, in barely a whisper.

Turning to face him, "I'm sorry, Colonel. What did you say?"

"Elizabeth, she was a Replicator. The real one is dead." Teyla says, as she can tell John is having difficulty speaking.

Realizing this as well, "okay, we'll debrief in an hour. Why don't you all go see Dr. Keller." and nodding at Teyla, she frowns as the Athosian nods back at her as she guides John down the ramp.

Watching the four of them walk out of sight, she heads back up to her office and on her way there she hits her radio.

"Lexi, come in please."

"Go ahead Sam."

"The Colonel and his team are back and we'll be debriefing in an hour. I'd like you to be there."

"Sure Sam. Did they bring Dr. Weir back?"

Sitting down, suddenly feeling very tired, "no and that's why I want you there."

"Oh boy. Okay, no problem. I'll be there."

xxxx

John knew the moment that they walked through the Gate that he was in shock. Losing Elizabeth for the third time was hitting him like a truck and having to face Carter the minute they got back to Atlantis, was only making the vise that had clamped down on his chest the minute he had found out that the real Elizabeth was dead, clamp down even more. The only way he had managed to shout out the order to raise the shield and not break down into tears as he said, "no one else is coming." was the adrenalin running through him.

Standing there in the Gate room, Carter asking her questions, he feels his mind basically shut down, which is why he could only whisper out, "she was a Replicator." After that everything blurs into a haze. Through which, he blearily realizes that he is being led to the infirmary by Teyla and once he is there, everything else fades out all together.

The next thing that permeates the haze is, "Colonel, can you hear me?"

Slowly looking around the room and realizing that he's sitting in the conference room, with everyone's eyes on him. _Okay, when did that happen?_ and focusing on Carter, "yeah, I'm sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was asking what happened and how you came by this?" she says, pointing at the data core.

Taking a deep breath, "well, we got to the planet, ran into our Replicator doubles and Elizabeth, at least the woman we thought was Elizabeth. They gave us the core drive, the Replicators showed up, our doubles and Elizabeth flew the Jumper as a diversion and we came through the Gate." and looking around the table, "did I leave anything out?"

"Nope I'd say that pretty much covers it." McKay says.

Looking from John to his team and back, "okay, I think that'll do for now." Carter says and with a nod, everyone leaves the conference room, except for Lexi and Carter. Before John leaves the room he catches Lexi's eye and in that one second she knows that he'll be stopping by soon.

"Lexi, I want you to make some time to meet with each of Sheppard's team if they want to. I think this is affecting them more than they want to admit, especially John."

"Of course. If they want to talk, let them know I'm available whenever they want. I've gotta go, though."

Smiling, "okay, see you later."

Returning the smile, Lexi walks out of the conference room, heading for her office. Reaching it, she sits down on the couch and patiently waits for John to show up, which doesn't take long.

McKay had left the conference room and headed directly to his lab with the data core. On his way there he reaches up and activating his radio, "Radek, meet me in my lab."

xxxx

John left the debriefing and headed straight for his quarters. Reaching them, he strips out of his uniform, changing into a clean one. However, it isn't until he is sitting on his bed trying to tie his boots that he realizes that he is shaking like a leaf, _get a grip John!_

Finally managing to tie them he unsteadily stands up and heads out for Lexi's office. Reaching it, he swipes the doors open and manages a small smile as he sees her sitting on the couch, with her feet curled up under her, looking right at him. Crossing the space between them in five long strides, he stands there in front of her looking down at her.

Reaching out for his hand, she pulls him down onto the couch and into her arms. She doesn't say anything, she just holds him.

"She's gone. She's really gone." he mumbles, anger and sadness evident in every syllable and lifting his head, looking her in the eyes, "I can't believe it."

Feeling the tremors running through him and seeing the tears that are threatening to fall, "John, it's okay, let it out."

He stares at her, _you don't do this! You are Lt. Colonel John Sheppard you don't do crying._ and closing his eyes against the spinning room, _but we just lost Elizabeth, again. There's no chance that she's going to come back and you failed her. You left her on the Replicator home world and you just let her sacrifice herself again._

"John?"

He opens his eyes to see her staring at him, concern written across her face, "I'm..."

She pulls him into her again and rubs his back trying to comfort him, "it's okay." she says again.

Burying his head in her shoulder he can't keep the emotions from spilling out.

"I'm here." she whispers in his ear, as she holds him and feeling the shudders of his body as he tries to catch his breath, "we're gonna get through this." she says, and holding him tighter she comforts him as best as she can.

Ten minutes later, as he draws away from her she can see that his mask has been put back on, the military side of him having reasserted itself.

Wiping the tears off his face and taking her hand in his, "thanks."

Smiling and squeezing his hand, "no problem. You know I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about it some more."

"Yeah, I know." and sighing and sticking his chin out towards the doors, "you wanna grab some dinner?"

Getting up and pulling him up to his feet, "sure." and before swiping them out of the office, she pulls his head down to her and kisses him.

"Ah, I needed that." he says with a smile, as they pull away from each other.

She swipes them out of her office and they walk side by side to the mess. Pretending to talk about things that won't draw too much attention to them, as they walk through the busy halls.

Reaching the mess, they get their food and find a table. Seeing the looks that everyone seems to be throwing John's way, they can tell that the news of what had happened, has already made the rounds. As they dig into their food, she can tell that he is trying his hardest to ignore everyone and realizing that he needs a distraction, she fills him in on everything that is going on around the base that he doesn't know about, which isn't much. Around 2315, he looks around and seeing that the mess has emptied out a little, he decides that he should go check in with McKay.

Getting up, they deposit their food trays in the bins and heading out of the mess, she goes left and he goes right. But not before he looks down at her with a smile, whispering, "my quarters or yours?"

Smiling back at him, "mine. I'll see you later."

Turning and heading off to McKay's lab, he smiles to himself, extremely looking forward to later.

xxxx

"Shall we take a break?" Radek asks, taking his glasses off and rubbing his eyes tiredly,

"You go ahead."

Turning to face McKay's back, "oh, Rodney, we've been working for five hours straight. We should take a break."

"Yeah, I will, when I'm finished."

"I know what you're trying to do."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"Lose yourself in your work to avoid thinking about Elizabeth." and watching McKay as he looks up from his computer, but doesn't turn around, "you must realize it's only a temporary distraction."

"That's one of the perks of the job. Something terrible happens, you don't have enough time to dwell on it cause you're too busy trying to stop the next terrible thing from happening. Seriously, if it wasn't for the Replicators and their plan to wipe out every human in the galaxy, I'd be in pretty bad shape right now."

Zelenka looks at him sympathetically.

"No, this is Carson all over again and I'm just not ready to deal. Not yet." he says refocusing on his work.

"You're not the only one who misses him, Rodney. I don't suppose you want to talk about it."

"Eventually, but not now."

With a sigh, "ok." and standing up, "oh, shall I get you anything?"

"No."

Zelenka turns and starts to leave, "Radek."

Zelenka stops and turning around, he sees McKay turning his head towards, him but still not meeting his eyes.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Rodney."

About half an hour later, McKay is still working on the core drive, frowning at his laptop, as John walks in, "how's it going?"

"S'all right."

"Why don't you call it a night?"

"No, I wanna finish this. What about you, isn't it past your bedtime?"

Not looking at him, but finding something on the desk very fascinating, "I'll approve the removal of her personal items tomorrow. Have everything shipped back to Earth."

McKay nods understandingly, his face showing the sadness he's feeling.

"I would have done it sooner. But I actually thought we were gonna bring her back."

"Yeah. Me too."

"Let me know when you get this thing working." he says, patting McKay's shoulder as he turns to leave the room.

"Will do."

Just then, the computer beeps.

"Oh! Wait!"

Data begins to scroll across his screen, as John comes back over to him.

"Huh! If this works, we should be able to track every Aurora-class Replicator ship in the galaxy in real-time."

He types something on his laptop and a map of the galaxy appears on the screen. The computer beeps six times, as six dots appear on the map in various places.

"That's not so bad. I guess the Wraith have really taken a toll."

The computer beeps eight more times and corresponding dots appear on the map.

"On the other hand, my duplicate did say they were building more."

There are fifteen more beeps and fifteen more dots appear on the screen. They stare at it in horror.

"A lot more!" and after some more beeps, "oh, crap!"

"Oh, crap is right. But let's let Carter know about it tomorrow morning."

"Okay. You heading off to bed?"

"Yeah, I'm more tired than I thought. See you in the morning."

"Night, John."

With a nod John leaves and heads to Lexi's quarters. Reaching the corridor that they are in he checks to make sure there is no one around and satisfied that he's alone, he swipes the controls to ring the bell. A few seconds later, the doors slide open to reveal her standing in front of him, wearing one of his t-shirts and a pair of pjay bottoms.

She pulls him into her quarters and as soon as the doors close behind them, they start to undress each other, all the while kissing each other and backing up to the bed. They fall down on it, pulling the blankets over them and make love.

A while later, lying in each others arms, Lexi rests her head on his shoulder and draping her right hand over his chest, she frowns to herself as a feeling that this might not be the end of the situation with Elizabeth, makes itself known in the pit of her stomach.

Pushing the thought aside, she sits up to turn off the light. Glancing down at him, she smiles at the sight of him out cold, "wow, could he be any more like a big kid?" she says under her breath, as she lies back down, readjusting the blankets over them. Rolling over on her right side, she startles a little as he turns over onto his side, wrapping his legs with hers and laying his right arm over her waist, pulling her closer to him. Smiling even wider to herself, she closes her eyes and a few seconds later, she falls asleep.

xxxx

The next thing Lexi is aware of is the alarm going off at 0630 and of John standing at her dresser already in his boxers, taking out a fresh pair of workout clothes. He had taken to keeping some of his clothes in her quarters, after the second week of their relationship.

Propping herself up on her elbows and eyeing him, not missing how slowly he's pulling on his t-shirt, as if he's still half asleep, "you going for your run with Ronon?"

"Yeah." he says, coming over to sit on the edge of the bed and pulling on his track pants, he leans over and kisses her good morning. Then bending down, he grabs his sneakers from under her bed and slips them on.

Standing up he heads into the bathroom, to brush his teeth and put on some deodorant and as he walks out of the bathroom, he doesn't miss the look on her face, "I'm fine, Lexi. Really."

Frowning, "John, I heard you last night. Did you have another nightmare?"

Shrugging, "it wasn't a bad one, but yeah."

"Which one?"

"Which one?" he says with a sad smirk, realizing that she already knows him well enough to know that there are many.

"John..."

"No, Lexi, it's really okay."

Getting out of bed, dragging the bed sheet with her and coming to stand in front of him, she leans in and kisses him, "okay." she says, as she pulls away, "have fun on your run."

Looking her up and down and pulling her close to him, "you know, if I wasn't already running late, you'd sure make a great excuse." and letting her go, "are you heading to the gym?"

Heading into the bathroom, "thanks and yeah. I have a sparring session with Evan." and at the look she catches him making in the mirror, she turns around to him, "John, we've been over this. I'm yours." she says, showing him the dog tag, "now get or Ronon'll come looking for you and that's just what we need."

"Okay, I'm going." and before he walks out the door, he looks over his shoulder, "I'm yours too, you know."

Standing in the doorway of the bathroom, she watches the doors close behind him and smiling to herself, she heads over to her dresser, taking out her workout clothes and changes into them. Before heading out for the gym, she remakes the bed and takes off the dog tag, placing it in her dresser draw. With one last look around her quarters to make sure everything is tidy, she heads out for the gym, arriving there by 0720, smiling at Lorne, who has beaten her there.

"You're late," he says, handing her a pair of sticks and smiling.

She takes them and as they settle into their fighting stances, she catches the fact that the smile doesn't reach his eyes and as she lunges for her first move, she calls him on it, "Evan, something's eating at you, what is it?"

Blocking her lunge, "it's nothing."

Advancing on him again, swinging one of the sticks at his shoulder, "come on Evan, you could never hide things from me."

Batting away her stick and swinging at her with one of his, he sees the exasperation on her face, "oh all right. It's just that I can't believe what happened yesterday. I really thought Sheppard was going to find Dr. Weir. He doin okay?"

Blocking his strike, swinging her other stick at him, she hits him on the left arm a little harder then she means to.

Flinching away from her and staring at her in surprise, "ow."

"Sorry and to answer your question, yeah, he's doing as well as can be expected."

Twenty minutes later, having finished fighting, they head for the mess for breakfast. They talk some more about Doctor Weir and as they get up to leave, "you know Evan, I wish certain people were as open as you are with your feelings."

Wrapping his arm around her shoulders as they head out of the mess for the transporter, "I know. But that's just how he is and you won't be able to change that part of him." and as they get in the transporter, "so, I'm off world for the next couple of days, but when I get back on Wednesday you want to grab dinner?"

Getting out of the transporter and turning to head in the direction of her quarters, "yeah. Radio me when you get back."

Smiling and heading in the direction of his quarters, "great, will do."

Calling after him, "Evan, be careful."

Shouting over his shoulder, "I'm always careful Lexi."

Smiling to herself, she finally reaches her quarters and an hour later, she's sitting in her office, in her first session of the day.

xxxx

Lexi had a run of unscheduled appointments and with everything that had occurred the previous day, she wasn't surprised. However, she is surprised when just as she is heading out of her office for a very late lunch, almost dinner, she opens her office doors to find Ronon standing there.

"Ronon, this is a first." and standing aside to let him in, "please come in." and watching as he walks in and takes a seat on the couch, she inwardly sighs, as she has a feeling that this is going to be interesting. She takes a seat in her chair facing him and they sit in silence for a couple of minutes.

Realizing that he's not going to talk first, "you're here to talk about Dr. Weir."

He grunts and she takes it as an affirmative.

"You know that you and the rest of your team did everything that you possibly could."

"I guess"

"But?"

"But, it doesn't feel like it."

"Look, I know that there is nothing I can say to make it seem right. But from what I've read in the mission reports from the Replicator home world, you did everything right."

Smiling a little at her and realizing that he feels better hearing her say all of this, "yeah, I know we did. Thanks. I guess I just needed to hear it again."

Smiling at him, "anytime. That's what I'm here for."

Getting up and heading out of the office, "thanks, again. I'll see you later."

Watching him leave, she knows that he is going to be okay, as he has actually spoken about the situation, or what can be considered talking about it for him. She had seen Teyla earlier in the day, as well as McKay and Zelenka. But John had not come to talk to her and she knew that even though he had opened up to her the previous night, he was probably still beating himself up about it. Pushing that thought aside, she heads for the mess, being that her stomach is growling its protest at being empty for so long.

Taking a seat in the mess hall and starting in on her food, she splits her attention between eating and making notes on her tablet, about certain things that she still needs to do to prepare for the following day.

"Hi Lexi. Mind if I join you?"

Looking up from her tablet, "sure, Jen," and noticing that her eyes are red, "is everything okay?"

"No, it's not," she says around bites of food, "I'm very angry with myself."

"Because of the nanites?"

"Yes. If I hadn't reactivated them then..." she represses a sob.

Placing a comforting hand on her arm, "if you hadn't reactivated them, then Dr. Weir would have died right then and there."

Tears running down her face, "but she still died."

"Yes and it's an absolute tragedy. But at the time, you did what was best for your patient. You couldn't have known what was going to happen."

"Elizabeth knew. She even said it was a bad idea, but we didn't listen. We just wanted her back, we needed her." she says, more tears rolling down her cheeks and not meeting Lexi's eyes.

"Jen, look at me," and she waits until Keller is in fact looking at her, "you, better than anyone know that we have to treat our patients with everything and anything we can. And if that means reactivating nanites, then so be it. She lived and in doing so, she was able to do something that will forever be remembered as bravery among amazing circumstances. She saved John, Ronon, Rodney and this expedition."

Considering this for a moment, as she tries to get her feelings in check, "yes, but we still lost her and there was nothing I could do about it."

Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, as they're starting to fray a little too, "look, you did everything in your power for your patient, you saved her life. And if that doesn't help, then look at it this way. By enabling the nanites, we were able to get our hands on a ZPM and now the Replicators are fighting the wraith. I think that Dr. Weir would agree that it was a good trade off. She saved her people. We all know that there is a risk of danger that comes with this job and I have a feeling that she understood that better than any of us would have guessed."

Drying the tears that had started to fall again and smiling weakly, "thanks, Lexi, you're right. It's still hard to lose people though."

With a gentle squeeze to her arm, "Jen, the day we forget that it's hard to lose people, is the day that the bad guys have won." and with a reassuring smile, "you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I will be."

"Good." she says, and with a look at her watch, "hey, look, I've gotta go." and standing up and grabbing her tablet and tray, "but if you still need to talk, stop by tomorrow and we'll chat some more."

"Have a good night, Lexi and thanks again."

Heading for the door and dropping her tray in the bin, "no problem and you do the same."

xxxx

She reaches Carter's office by 2130 and knocking on the door, "hey Sam, sorry I'm late. It's been a crazy day." she says, as she sits down in one of the chairs facing Carter's desk.

Looking at her and noticing how tired she looks, "that's okay, I can imagine. How're you doin?"

Sighing, "I'm good. How bout you?"

"I'm okay, I guess. Colonel Sheppard put the request in today to have Dr. Weir's belongings officially sent back home."

"Yeah, but something else is bothering you."

"I don't know."

Leaning forward in her chair, her chin resting on her hands, "Sam, come on, what is it?"

Pushing back from her desk and running her fingers through her hair, "I guess I feel a little guilty."

"Why?"

"Well, if Elizabeth hadn't been lost, I wouldn't have gotten this post and well..."

"You have nothing to feel guilty about. You earned this post. It's a shame that Elizabeth had to die. But if anyone was going to come in and help this expedition, not only in fighting all the bad guys, but in dealing with everything else, then it's a good thing that it was you."

Grimacing, "but still, Lexi, we lost a good person and leader."

"Yes we did. But if we don't continue the fight, then she'll have died in vain. And I don't know about you, but I don't think she would have been too happy that everyone is sulking around feeling sorry for her. She'd want everyone to be fighting as hard as they can."

Looking at her, she smiles, "you're right, and I know you're right, but it's still hard."

"Sam, it's gonna be hard for everyone for a little while. But, we'll all get through it."

Leaning forward and entering "aunt" mode, "well, if that's the case, then I guess you'll need to be in top form. So let's cut this meeting off right now. Go get some sleep."

Standing up and heading for the door, "you too. If the rumors I've been hearing around base are true and the Replicators are indeed attacking the human populations of this galaxy, everyone is gonna have to be on alert even more."

"Thanks, Lexi, I will. Love you."

"Love you too." she says, as she leaves Carter's office and heads to her quarters.

xxxx

Walking to her quarters, carrying her tablet in her hands reading some notes that she had made earlier in the day, her mind starts to wander and giving up on reading the notes she simply walks the rest of the way, running over the conversations she had had that day, in her head.

Reaching her quarters and opening the door, she isn't surprised to see John passed out, fully clothed on her bed. But seeing him lying there holding Mr. Puddles, she smiles to herself thinking, _yep, just a big kid._

Walking over to her desk, placing the tablet down on it she doesn't take her eyes off him. Shaking her head, as she still can't seem to believe that he's holding Mr. Puddles, she walks into the bathroom to get ready for bed. Shutting off the bathroom light and feeling her way over to the right side of the bed, she switches on the bedside lamp to low and climbing onto the bed, she goes to work on taking off his boots. Placing them under the bed, turning off the lamp and getting under the blankets, she snuggles up to him. He lets out a soft grunt, as she places her arm over his stomach and not being able to help herself, she kisses him.

Cracking open an eye, "hey, I was sleeping."

"I know, but I couldn't resist and I thought you might want to get under the blankets with me."

Tossing Mr. Puddles onto the bedside table, recognizing the offer for what it is, he gets under the blankets and pulling her into him, "you're better than the stuffed animal." he says drifting back to sleep.

She snuggles into him, "I thought I might be." and with smile on her lips she too falls asleep.

xxxx

The rest of the week passes by in a blur. John and his team, as well as the rest of the Gate teams going through the Gate trying to relocate the inhabitants of the worlds that are being targeted by the Replicators. Lexi, for her part is crazy busy with trying to deal with the fall out from what had happened to Doctor Weir.

And then out of no where on Sunday morning, as she is brushing her teeth she looks up into the mirror to see him standing in the door to the bathroom, in his BDU pants and boots, sans t-shirt, with a confused look on his face.

"John, what's the matter?"

He walks up behind her, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder, "I was just trying to figure out how I didn't know you existed until you showed up here."

"Well, I wasn't at the SGC when you came back." she says, bending over to spit. She washes out her mouth with some water and turns around, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Huh?"

"Oh come on. Don't tell me you don't remember the six weeks you were stationed back to the SGC." and at the look he is giving her, "you know when the Ancients took back Atlantis."

Thinking about it for a second, "oh, yeah. When we came back to save Woolsey and O'Neill. Yeah, I remember. Where were you?"

"I was at the Air Force Academy hospital for those six weeks. Carson and Dr. Lam had me working on a project for them." she says, and she sees the pain flash through his eyes.

"You knew Carson?" he asks, looking away from her.

"Yeah. He was a great guy." she says, gently turning his face to her, "he warned me about you."

Eyebrows shooting up, "he spoke of me with you?"

"Yeah, I told you that I had heard a lot about you." she says, resting her head on his chest.

"Lexi?"

"Hmm?" she says lifting her head and looking him in the eyes.

"Why did he warn you about me?"

Taking him by the hand and guiding him over to the couch, sitting down on it, "well, I think he had a feeling that I might at some point be faced with having to treat you. And knowing you as he did, I think he wanted me to be prepared for what that would entail."

"Yeah, I could see him doing that. I wonder what he would say if he knew we were together." he says getting up and throwing his t-shirt on.

She gets up as well and taking a couple of steps, she draws him into her "I think he would've been really happy for us."

"Yeah, I think so too." he says, twisting his fingers in the dog tag that she has around her neck, "so what you got on tap for today?"

"Well, I've got some appointments and then I have some research to do. Oh and the rest of my things are coming today." she says smiling wide.

"Oh, yeah, The Apollo and Daedalus arrive this morning."

"Yeah, my clubs, some other odds and ends and a couple of DVDs that Cam said he was sending me."

"Wait, what?"

"My clubs, John. You know, golf clubs. Sam told me about the driving range you've got here."

"Right, you golf. Okay, Thursday, you and me at the range."

"Yes Sir." she mock salutes and with a kiss, and a "see you later" they each leave her quarters, one at a time, making sure that no one sees them. Both heading for the mess and after that, Lexi heads to her office and John heads to the locker room to gear up.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chap. 12:

* * *

**

An hour later, Ronon is sitting on the bottom of the stairs leading to the Jumper bay, watching John pace back and forth in front of him.

"Don't worry, we're ahead of schedule."

"I know." John says, still pacing.

"All the settlements we've been assigned have been evacuated."

"I know, I know. It's just that most of the planets that are in the Replicators path are people that we've had almost no contact with. So I need you and Teyla out there as much as possible."

"Yeah, well, I think it might be the flu. She's been looking a little green lately."

"I am fine. Where are we going to now?" Teyla says, walking towards them.

"M9R-373."

Ronon stands up, as Teyla sighs, "the Sions. Should be interesting."

John looks at her, "look, I'm sorry we're having to go out so much. I know you don't feel so hot. But you're the one with all the contacts out there, so."

"It's all right. I'm feeling much better now."

As they reach the top of the stairs down to the Gate room, the Stargate begins to dial in and they hear Chuck, yelling out, "off world activation."

They stop and watch as a marine walks through the Gate, followed by a small boy.

"Must be Lieutenant Kemp's team." John says, as more refugees follow the boy out of the Gate and some scientists walk over to greet them.

"Receiving video transmission. Coming in now, Colonel." Chuck says from behind them.

They walk back into the Control Room and head over to a wall screen where Lieutenant Kemp's image appears. He is squatting down to a M.A.L.P. and looking into its camera.

"Lieutenant. Looks like things are going well."

"Most of the settlement's on their way through, but a good number of them have decided to stay behind. I'm not sure they believe us, sir. I'm requesting Teyla come back and try to talk some sense into the stragglers, cause I'm not gettin anywhere with 'em."

"Hell. I don't think we can do that. The Replicator ship's gonna be there within a half hour."

"Well, I don't know what to do. They..." Kemp trails off looking up as he hears the sound of a ship above him. He calls out a warning to his men, "incoming!"

A missile hits nearby and he ducks down as it explodes and rising up again, he yells into the camera, "too late! They're already here!"

"Lieutenant, get your men through the Gate!" John orders.

"I can't! There's no way through..."

"We lost the transmission." Chuck says.

"Dial 'em back." John tells him.

Chuck punches the buttons on the DHD, but the Gate won't respond, "can't get a lock."

All three of them are still looking at the screen, "they must have taken out the Gate." John says.

Ronon looks from the screen to Teyla, "how many people were left on that settlement?"

Teyla looks at him and sighing, "just under two thousand."

He walks away, as John shares a look with her and they follow Ronon to the locker room, where they divest themselves of their gear. Ronon and Teyla, head out to find something to do and John heads for his office, to catch up on some things.

xxxx

About two hours later, he heads back up to the Control room, to meet up with Carter and McKay. Coming to a stop next to McKay and Carter, "both ships at the same time. This is a first." McKay says.

Carter turns to him, "well, it's the first time we've needed them." and at the looks she gets from both men, "well, since I've been here."

A few seconds later, Caldwell and Ellis beam in, Caldwell speaking first, addressing Ellis, "Colonel."

"Colonel." Ellis greets back.

And they turn to face Carter and Caldwell addresses her, "Colonel."

"Colonels," she acknowledges them and then Ellis, addresses John, "Colonel." John follows Carter's lead, "Colonels."

McKay, who has been watching the exchange, grimaces, "what, seriously?"

Carter looks at him and turning her head in Caldwell's direction, "good flight?"

"Long flight"

"We'll make it worth your while." John says.

"That's what I hear. You have a way of tracking the Replicator ships?" Ellis asks.

"We do." Carter replies.

"That'll make finding and destroying them a lot easier." Caldwell says.

"Why don't you come into my office? We'll get you briefed." Carter suggests.

The five of them head into her office. John and Caldwell take up seats in the easy chairs in the corner of the office to the right of the entrance, McKay heads over to the screen that is positioned to the left of the entrance and Carter and Ellis stand in front of the desk and to the left of the screen.

As soon as they are all settled, McKay launches into his explanation of what he's been working on and about forty five minutes later, as Replicator coding streams across the screen, he reaches the meat of his explanation, "it is this recent discovery of the essential duality of this particular stem of the nano sub code that has opened up a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to the expedient and permanent deactivation of the inter-nanite bonds."

At this point, Caldwell and John are bored to tears and John can't help it, "Rodney."

"Yeah, I'll let you know when I'm ready to take questions. Thank you."

Seeing that McKay is just going to keep going, Ellis interrupts him, "have you created an anti Replicator weapon or not?"

"If you just let me continue, I think you'd have a better understanding of the complexity that I am..."

Again Ellis interrupts him, "yes or no, Doctor?"

"Well...no."

Before he can get going again however, Carter speaks up, "all right, we move on to plan B."

"What, just like that?" McKay asks her.

"The Replicators are destroying every human colony they can find in an attempt to wipe out the wraiths' food supply. We can't wait. We have to act now." she answers.

McKay can't help himself, "yeah, but Plan B, it's not a good plan."

"Oh, no?" Ellis asks him.

"Sure, the Apollo and the Daedalus have been retrofitted with the new Asgard plasma beam weapon which, given, are very, very powerful, but they still can't destroy the Replicators."

The conversation continues until finally Carter realizes that it is going to get out of control and that McKay is getting very angry at Ellis, "all right, that is enough!"

McKay speaks up again, "no! He just told."

"Rodney. Move on." John tells him.

McKay takes a second and turning to everyone in the office, "look, I think we've got this tracking system down. We can peg where they're gonna be within a thirty minute window and given current data we've got at least twelve hours before any of their ships are even close to an inhabited planet." and looking at Carter, "just give me and the wraith, like ten hours to get this shut-down program working. If I don't, then you can just feel free to go ahead and open up on 'em with your beam weapons."

"All right, you have ten hours. Go." Carter says.

"Right." he says, and turning off the screen with a remote, he leaves the room for his lab.

Ellis, watching him go, sighs, "I don't understand how you guys put up with..."

Turning around to face him, "if you ever talk like that to someone under my command again, you will not be welcome on this base, Colonel. Is that clear?"

Nodding, "Yes, it is."

"Good," and looking at all three men in the office, "we're done here. Thank you." and watching Ellis and Caldwell walk out of her office she doesn't realize that John is still sitting in his chair, until she sits down behind her desk, "was there something else you needed Colonel?"

He sits there for a couple of seconds without answering and looking at her, a smile crosses his lips, "thanks."

"For what?"

"For standing up for McKay. It saved me from having to punch the guy."

Laughing and looking at him, "well, we both know how Rodney can get and Ellis just doesn't know how to deal with his, ah, quirkiness." and as she finishes speaking, she notices that he isn't smiling anymore and is staring off in space, "John." she says, gently trying to get his attention.

He comes back to the present at the sound of her saying his name, "yeah, Sam."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking." he says, looking off into space again.

"You know, I've already written the letters home to the families of Lt. Kemp and the others. Do you want to add anything?"

"Yeah." he says focusing on her, "I'll email my letters to you by tonight." and getting up to leave, "I'll see you later."

"Okay."

He walks out of her office and as he reaches the transporter, an idea strikes him. Getting in he hits the screen to take him to Lexi's office. Reaching it, he smiles to himself as the doors are open and he sees her sitting at her desk typing something on her tablet. He stops just inside the door and catches sight of her golf bag standing off to the right of her desk.

Walking into the office, "nice set."

Looking up from her tablet at the sound of his voice, "what?" and seeing his eyes looking at her clubs, "oh yeah, thanks. Whatcha doing here? I thought you were supposed to be off world."

He walks around the desk and leans against it, looking down at her, "well, I would have been, but."

Recognizing the pain in his voice, "John what's wrong?" she asks, as she takes his hand in hers.

He squeezes her hand and not able to look her in the eyes, he looks out one of the windows in the office, "we lost Lt. Kemp and his team this morning."

She stands up from her chair and pulls him into an embrace, "oh, John, I'm so sorry. What can I do?"

"You wanna go hit some balls?"

She pulls away from him and looking at him incredulously, "what?"

Smiling, "well, I thought it would help take my mind off of things for a while and it'll be fun."

Nodding, she sits down and opening up the scheduling program on her tablet she cancels her upcoming appointments and standing up, "okay, let's go." and pulling him towards the door, she grabs her clubs on the way. They stop off at his quarters so that he can grab his clubs as well and once he has them, he leads her to the driving range.

Reaching it, "oh, wow. This is so cool." Lexi says, as she puts her bag down and places a ball on the tee. Picking out a driver, she gets into her stance, noticing as she does so that he is watching her, a smile on his face, "what?"

"Nothing, I'm just really impressed."

"Wait." she says, and focusing on the ball she takes a swing and a second later he sees the ball flying into the air, landing as far, if not further then he has hit it and as he looks back at her he notices that she is still in her stance and has a huge smile on her face.

"Did you forget to mention that you're a golf pro in your spare time?" he asks, laughing.

"No, I've just been playing for most of my life."


	13. Chapter 13

**Chap. 13:

* * *

**

Two hours later, dropping their clubs off at their respective quarters, they head to the mess to grab some dinner. As they walk to the tables to sit down, they see Ronon and Teyla waving them over and they join them.

"Hey Sheppard, where were you?"

"John was showing me the driving range, Ronon, and he told me that he tried to teach you how to play."

"Yeah, it was boring and not that hard to learn." and seeing the look on John's face. "hey, buddy, don't blame me if the games your people play are easy."

"It's not easy. At least not for everyone." John says, defensively as he starts in on his dinner.

"John, Colonel Carter asked me to remind you that she needs the letters for the families of the men that died this morning."

"Yeah, Teyla. Thanks. I was going to write them up after dinner."

Sitting next to John, her right hand in his left, under the table so that no one will see, she grimaces a little, as he squeezes it, at the mention of the letters that he still has to write. Looking over at him, she catches him glancing at her and offering up a smile, she squeezes back. She sees him relax again and the rest of the meal is spent chatting and laughing about golf and other Earth sports.

xxxx

"So, I know what John's gonna be doing for the next couple hours. But would you two like to come and watch Batman Begins with me?" Lexi asks as they all get up to leave.

"Oh, that's not fair, Lexi!" John says, looking hurt.

"John, I have the DVD and it's not going anywhere. So what do you guys say?" she asks Ronon and Teyla again.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Teyla says, "but John, if you would like. We can do it some other time."

"Yeah, let's watch it." Ronon agrees.

They all reach the doors leading out of the mess, "all right, I'll meet you in the rec room, I just have to go get the disc from my quarters."

"Okay, see you there." Teyla says, as she and Ronon head towards the transporter.

Watching Ronon and Teyla walk away, she feels John watching her. Turning to face him she sees the look on his face, "John, we'll watch it this weekend, I promise."

"It's not that Lexi."

"I know. You really don't want to write those letters."

"Yeah, it's one of the things I hate most about this job. Anyway."

"Yeah. See you later?"

"I don't know. If McKay doesn't figure something out with Todd, then it's Plan B." and seeing the glint in her eye, "what time will you be up till?" he asks, in a whisper so that no one will hear.

With a shrug and a wink, "late." and turning she heads for her quarters to get the DVD.

He watches her go and heads in the opposite direction for his office. Smiling to himself as he walks, thinking _late_. He reaches his office and sitting down he starts typing up the letters. It takes him the better part of an hour to write them up and emailing them to Carter, he looks down at his watch, realizing that it is coming up on the ten-hour deadline.

Getting up from his desk and heading out of his office for McKay's lab, opening up a radio channel, "Colonel Sheppard to Colonel Carter."

"Go ahead Colonel."

"Sam, I'm on my way to McKay's lab. I suggest that you get Plan B prepped just in case."

"Already gearing up John. We were just about to radio you."

"Alright, I'll let him know that it's Plan B. Sheppard out." and reaching McKay's lab, he walks in, realizing that McKay and Todd are sitting at separate consoles, still working, "time's up." he says coming to stop at McKay's console.

"What, so soon?"

"I guess that means you're not ready."

"Well, no, I'm not."

"Well, we're going with Plan B. Wanna go for a ride?"

Sighing, "no. I'll stay here. It still needs to get done. Good luck." McKay says, and John walks out the door, leaving him to get back to work.

John joins Carter in the Control room and they each beam up to a different ship, John going to the Apollo and Carter to the Daedalus. As soon as they are on board, the ships jump to hyperspace and about half an hour later they drop out at the designated coordinates. A Replicator ship shows up a couple of minutes later and the Earth ships fire and destroy it easily. They hang around for a little while longer and once they are positive that no more Replicator ships are on their way for the time being, they head back to Atlantis.

xxxx

Beaming down into the Gate room, they say their good nights and go their separate ways. Carter heading back up to her office for a quick moment and John heading for Lexi's quarters. Reaching the corridor that they are in, he makes sure that no one is around and satisfied that he is alone, he swipes the control panel, smiling as the doors slide open to reveal her standing there. Stepping aside to let him in, she follows him towards the bed.

Climbing into the bed, on the right side and propping herself up against the pillows, covering herself with the blankets, "so how did Plan B go?"

"So far so good." he says, as he pulls off his boots, socks and pants and heads into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Well that's good. You know McKay's still working, right?"

"Not surprised." comes his muffled response, as he is talking around his toothbrush. A couple of minutes later, as he walks out of the bathroom, heading for the dresser to grab a clean t-shirt and pjay bottoms, "this would be huge if he can pull it off."

Watching him, as he changes into the new shirt and pants, "I know and I'm not surprised either."

He smiles at her and climbing into the bed, he pulls her closer to him and she lets him.

Wrapping his arms around her stomach, lying on their right sides and kissing her neck and shoulder, "you know Lexi. I'm really glad that you're here."

Turning over to look at him, running her fingers through his hair tracing them down his chest, and leaning into him, "me too." she says, as he pulls her close to him again and starts kissing her.

A couple of minutes later, just as she's about to roll over onto her right side to go to sleep, she smiles to herself, as he is sleeping peacefully.

Twenty minutes later however her eyes snap open, as she is certain that she heard something. Sitting up quickly, she looks around the room and as her eyes come to rest on him, she hears the sound again and she realizes that he's having a nightmare. Frowning, she reaches out for him, "John, wake up."

His eyes shoot open at her voice and as they come to rest on her, "Lexi?"

Sliding closer to him and pulling him into her arms, "yeah, I'm here. Don't worry, it was just a bad dream." and holding him, she feels him shaking. She hooks her finger under his chin and shifts to get a better look at his face and seeing the hurt in his eyes, "what's wrong?"

Pulling away from her and sitting up, "it's nothing. Just a bad dream, like you said."

Sitting up, resting her chin on his shoulder, "what about?"

Taking a deep breath, "you leaving me."

Kissing his shoulder, "I'm not going anywhere." and feeling him still shaking, "there's something else?"

Sighing, "yeah." and shifting in the bed so that he is looking right at her, "it's just that, I've fallen for you."

Smiling, "that's a good thing."

Letting a small smile break through, "yeah, it is. But with my track record."

Quirking an eyebrow in confusion, "what do you mean?"

Sighing, "well, I was married once before."

Taking his hand in hers, "John, what's past is past. I don't care about that. What I do care about is you and if that means that I have to take all of what makes you, you, then so be it."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, "but?"

Smiling, "no buts. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm yours."

Pulling her down to the bed and holding her, "really?"

Laughing slightly and whispering in his ear, "really." and sliding further down under the blankets they fall asleep.

xxxx

The following week passes with McKay making little progress and then all at once everything falls into place. A plan is put into motion, which requires John, Teyla and Ronon to convince the Wraith and the Travelers to help but not without getting stunned in the process. Having secured the back up they need, they head back to Atlantis.

Docking the Jumper, they all make their way out of the bay. As they walk into the hallway from the bay, Ronon and John turn right and Teyla, who is carrying her things, turns left.

"Just gonna check on McKay. See if he made any progress." John says.

Teyla turns around to face them, "I must go see Dr. Keller."

John and Ronon stop in their tracks and turning to face her, John asks, "why's that?"

"I was stunned."

"We get stunned all the time, shake it off."

As the two men turn to head off again, "circumstances are...different."

"How so?" John asks, as he and Ronon turn around to face her again.

She hesitates and looking around to see if anyone else is nearby, she sighs, "I am carrying a child."

"You're what?"

"I am pregnant, John." she says, stepping closer to them.

"Is this a joke?" he asks, turning to look at Ronon.

"Don't look at me!"

"It just happened." Teyla says.

Stammering, "I...I didn't know you were seeing anyone." John manages to get out, the shock making it difficult to form words.

"It is no one from Atlantis."

"How...far along are you?" he asks, looking uncomfortable.

"About three months."

"Three. How long have you known?" he asks, quietly.

"Just under two."

He stares at her, "two. We've been...You let me put you out in the field when you've known you're three months pregnant."

"I tried to tell you."

"You didn't try hard enough."

"I am more than capable of..."

"You got stunned today. Do you have any idea what kind of effect that has?"

"Athosian women remain very active in the community well up..."

"This is different. We get shot at, beat up, stunned. We take a chance every time we walk through the Gate."

"John..."

"As of this second, you are relieved from active duty." he says, and storms off.

Ronon, watching him go, frowns after him, as Teyla simply watches him walk away in shocked silence. After a few seconds, she turns to walk away but stops as Ronon calls her back.

"Hey." he says smiling at her, "congratulations. Kanaan is the father?"

"You knew that we were...?"

"I could tell. The way you talked about him."

"Yes. He is the father."

"I'm sorry."

"I will find him. He is still alive, I feel it."

"We'll find him, together." and taking her hand, "I promise. Come on, let's go get you checked out."

The two of them turn and start to walk to the infirmary, hand in hand, "you know, uh, "Ronon," it's a good name...boy or girl."

Teyla laughs and they continue on to the infirmary.

xxxx

A couple of hours later, John and Carter are walking down a hallway, "so that brings the grand total to?"

"Fourteen. Larrin said she can get three or four more ships." John says.

"Well, that's great!"

"Yeah." he says unenthusiastically.

Looking at him, "you ok?"

"Yeah. I've taken Teyla off active duty."

"Why?"

"She's pregnant."

"Uh...ok.. Who's the father?"

"I never asked."

"Wow! Well, it has been one hell of a day. There's one more thing you need to see. McKay has kind of thrown us a curve ball."

"Oh, great, I was just thinking we need more of those today." he says, sarcastically and as they continue to walk to Carter's office, she chuckles.

The curve ball of course, is that McKay had created FRAN and the plan they came up with is to use her to destroy the Replicators. By the end of the day, the Replicators fall, as the plan works perfectly and after saying a very awkward good bye to Larrin, John beams back down to Atlantis to find McKay once again in the Control room, working on a console.

Looking up just as the beam dissipates leaving John in its wake, "welcome back."

Coming to a stop next him, "good to be back. How are our good friends the Wraith?"

"Well, they never showed up at the rendezvous point."

"Hmm. Think they got caught in the explosion?"

"I doubt it. I guess they just figured that there was nothing left to talk about, so, as soon as the planet blew up, we were back to being enemies."

"Hmm! Wraith back being enemies. Replicators don't exist any more, you end your dry spell."

"Hey!" McKay says, the indignation obvious in his voice.

Smiling, "all is right with the world. What are you working on, anyway?"

"Well, you'd be surprised to hear that removing a planet from the database is actually a lot of work."

"I thought you'd be pretty good at that by now."

"You really just can't resist bringing up the fact that I once accidentally destroyed a couple of planets, can you?" McKay says, irritated.

"It was an entire solar system."

Sighing, "you wanna do the honors?" he asks John, offering him the lap top.

"No, go ahead."

"All right," and looking at the view screen to his right, which has a map of the Replicator system, "M7R-227, you were a constant pain in the ass. It's good to see you go."

As he presses the Enter key on his laptop, the dot designating M7R-227 on the screen beeps and flashes and then goes out.

"If only it were that easy in real life."

"Mmm. Area 51's working on it. You wanna get a late dinner?" McKay asks, taking one last look at the screen.

"Absolutely." John says.

"All right." and shutting down the laptop, "I would have loved to have seen Ellis' face when my plan worked." and standing up, "he's such a tool."

Falling into step with McKay, "I like him."

"You do?"

"Yeah. Good guy. Excellent judge of character."

Chuckling, "oh, I see. I see where you're going." McKay says as they leave the Control room.

xxxx

They walk to the mess hall chatting about the events of the past couple of weeks and reaching it, they get their food and head out onto the balcony where they see Keller and Lexi sitting at a table.

Heading over to Keller and Lexi's table, "hey you two, mind if we join you?" McKay asks.

"Sure guys, have a seat." Lexi says, smiling.

"Thanks." John says, as he takes the seat next to Lexi and as he sits down he leans down, pretending to have an itch on his ankle, when in fact he rests his hand on Lexi's thigh, knowing that she won't react. Sitting back up and taking his fork with his other hand, he feels her hand, taking his.

Looking from her to Keller and back, "so what were you two ladies talking about?" he asks around bites of food.

"Well Colonel, I was telling Lexi about Larrin."

"What?" he splutters, nearly choking on his soda.

"Whoa, Sheppard, you okay?" McKay worriedly asks.

Getting his breathing under control, "yeah," and noticing that they're all looking at him, "just went down the wrong pipe." he says, shooting a glance in Lexi's direction.

"So what did you tell Lexi about Larrin?" McKay asks.

"Oh, you know. Just what happened the last time the two of them met." Keller says, gesturing in John's direction.

John smiles, hoping that Lexi won't be angry at him. But, as the meal and conversation continue, a growing worry starts to twist in his stomach, as Lexi won't meet eyes or speak to him directly.

It isn't until McKay and Keller get up and leave that she actually directs a word at him, "so, John?" she says, turning in her seat and leaning back against the railing, "is this Larrin, one of your bad relationships?

Looking at her, mentally kicking himself for the fact that he can't seem to read her and turning in his chair so that he is facing her, "no, we didn't have a relationship."

"But you like her?"

"I'm not going to lie to you. Yes, I like her, but, there's no way that anything's going to happen."

"And why is that?"

Looking around to make sure that no one is within ear shot, "well, first off because she's never going to stop leading her people and second, because, well." he can't come up with another reason that he thinks will make sense, so smiling, "well because she's not you."

Considering his answer for a moment and returning his smile, "good answer." and changing the subject, "so Teyla's pregnant."

He looks at her, the relief obvious in his eyes, but not believing that the news has spread so fast, "how do you know?"

"Well, Sam told me that you took her off active duty and it makes sense, being that she's three months along."

"Wait, what? How long have you have known?"

"I've known since I got here."

"How did you find out? Did she tell you?"

"No she didn't tell me, I figured it out. She was in the infirmary suffering from morning sickness when I had gone in to chat with Jen about your condition. And well, I shouldn't be telling you this, what with doctor patient privilege but she's been coming to see me about how to break the news to you and everyone else."

"Yeah, well, she should have told me." he says, turning away from her and playing with his napkin

"John," she says placing a hand on his arm, "she respects you and your opinion greatly and she needs your support more than she realizes. Just give it time."

Not wanting to talk about it, as it is still too raw of a subject and getting up, "I'm tired. I'm gonna head off to bed."

Feeling a little hurt that he is reacting this way, but not letting it show and lowering her voice, "are you coming to my quarters?"

Also lowering his voice, "no. I think I'll sleep in mine tonight. I have an early morning."

Letting the hurt show this time, "oh, okay. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." and with that he leaves her sitting at the table and heads off to his quarters.

She watches him walk away from her and absentmindedly she fingers the chain around her neck, thinking to herself, _if anyone has a right to be angry it's me. _and sitting there for a little while longer, she runs the conversation over in her head again and again, trying to figure out where it had gone wrong. Having no luck, she gets up and heads out for her quarters. Reaching them, she gets ready for bed and getting under the blankets, taking out her radio, she reaches for Mr. Puddles and cries herself to sleep. Silently berating herself that she is letting him get to her like this.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chap. 14:

* * *

**

Walking out of the mess, John had looked back at Lexi, catching her playing with the chain around her neck, looking as if she was going to cry. But the anger coursing through him clouds his feelings to the point where he doesn't care.

Reaching his quarters, he swipes himself in and after pacing the length of them a couple of times he gets ready for bed. A couple of minutes later, he punches the pillow realizing how stupid he had been to treat her the way he had. Sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of his bed, he runs a hand through his hair and over his face and reaches for his radio. Putting it in his ear he opens the channel, "Colonel Sheppard to Control."

"Go ahead Colonel."

"Chuck, I need a secure line, please."

"Sure Colonel, hang on a sec."

He waits a few seconds and hearing a click, "Colonel, line is secure. Is that all?"

"Yeah, thanks Chuck." he waits for Chuck to get off the line and then "Lexi, this is John, please come in."

He waits a couple of seconds, which feel like an eternity and looking at his bedside clock, he closes the link. Getting up, he walks over to his dresser, pulling out a pair of socks and a hoody. Returning to his bed and putting on the socks and hoody, he slips into his sneakers and heads out of his quarters to go for a run to clear his head.

Leaving them he turns right and jogs his way over to the East pier and working his way back towards the center tower, he heads for the North pier as well, eventually ending up on the balcony outside of the Control room.

Standing on the balcony, happy that there really isn't anyone around at this time of night except for the graveyard shift, he watches the waves lap the side of the city for about ten minutes, getting lost in his thoughts.

"Colonel?"

Startling a little and turning his head to his right to see who just joined him on the balcony, "Major, what are you doing up?"

Shrugging and looking out at the ocean, "well, sir, I couldn't sleep. So I thought I'd go for a run. How bout you?"

Also looking out at the ocean, "I guess I'm still riled up from this evening."

"Must have been an awesome sight. I hear the battle was a good one."

"That it was."

"Colonel, are you okay?"

"Yeah, Lorne." and turning his head to look at him, "why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I just thought..." he says trailing off, as he is not sure how to breach the subject with him.

"Come on Major, spit it out."

"Okay. I saw you talking to Lexi tonight in the mess."

"Oh." John says, turning to look out at the two moons.

"Yeah, oh. You know sir, I feel like I should tell you that I know."

"You know what?"

"I know that you two are seeing each other." he says with a wince, a little worried that he might just end up on the floor.

Turning his head to look at him again, "how do you know?"

Treading lightly, "Lexi told me."

"Really?"

"Yes sir. We talk," and seeing the anger in John's eyes, "not about you, though. It's mostly you know, other stuff, old times and such."

"Oh right." John says turning once again away from Lorne to face the water and then a thought occurs to him, "hey, Lorne?"

"Yes sir?"

"You and Lexi dated, for what like a year and a half?"

"A year. Why?"

"In that time, did you ever do something stupid, like oh, I don't know get angry and not say or do something?"

Thinking about it for a second, he rubs his hand, absentmindedly and shaking his head, "yeah. I forgot her birthday."

Catching him rubbing his hand, "what did she do?"

Turning to face him, "well the day after, we were stick fighting in the gym and she whacked me in the hand. Let's just say, it wasn't fun."

"Did she forgive you?"

With a wicked grin, "oh yeah. She sure did."

Finally feeling better, a smile curves his lips, "thanks, Lorne." and turning to leave, "have a good night."

"You too, sir." Lorne says, as he watches him jog away.

xxxx

John jogs back to the crew quarters section and is so caught up in his thoughts that he is a little surprised when his feet take him to Lexi's door. Turning to go back to his quarters, a voice in his head says, _stay_, so he chimes the door. He waits a couple of minutes and as he is about to turn to go back to his quarters again, he hears the doors swish open behind him.

Turning around, he sees Lexi standing there in a tank top and pjay bottoms. He notices that the dog tag is tangled in her top and he can tell she is still half asleep.

Smiling at the fact that she isn't slamming the door in his face, "Lexi." he says, reaching out his right hand to untangle the tag from her shirt.

She grabs his hand, before he can reach the tag and pulls him into the room, mentally shutting the doors.

"What?" he asks, as they come to a stop right on the inside of the door.

"Marines." she answers, gesturing to the door with her head and frowning at him, "John, do you have any idea what time it is?"

He reaches for the dog tag again and moving it back to rest on her chest, he pulls her into a hug, "I'm sorry."

She pulls back from him and walks over to the bed, taking a seat on it and looking at him, "you had no right to get angry with me."

Coming to stand in front of her and looking down at her, "I know. I was stupid. It's just that it's Teyla, and she ah..."

Standing up and looking him in the eyes, "I know. She's special to you."

Pulling her into him again, "yeah." and pushing her away a little, "just so you know, what I said about Larrin, not being you. I mean it. She doesn't hold a candle to you."

Smiling at him and reaching for his waist, "thanks." she says, pulling his hoody and t-shirt up and over his head. Dropping them on the ground, she leans in and kisses him. As she is kissing him, she sits down on the bed and pulls him down onto her, but not before he slips off his sneakers.

As he lowers himself on top of her, he feels her lips on his chest and shoulders and then he is kissing his way up her stomach, gently pulling off her tank top. He has his hands on her back and is kissing her neck and chest, as she has her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

He lets her fall softly against the bed and leans down onto her and kisses his way up to her lips, "oh, John," she whispers, as he catches her in just the right spot.

They lie there tracing each other's curves with their lips, until finally exhausted he takes her in his arms and pulls the blankets over them. She rests her head on his chest, draping her right hand over his stomach and entwining her fingers in his.

"Lexi, I really am sorry." he says, running his right hand along her right arm.

"I know." she says, lifting her head up and propping her chin up on his chest, looking him in the eyes, "now go to sleep. I have a feeling it's about to get really crazy around here." and shifting her head back to his chest, she shuts her eyes and as she feels his breathing steady out, signaling that he has listened to her, she falls asleep with a smile on her lips.

xxxx

A couple of months later, John and Ronon are walking back to John's quarters, having a conversation.

"I watched it last night. There was hardly any fighting." Ronon says.

"That's cause it's not about fighting."

"Then why's it called _Blades of Glory_?"

"Cause it's about...skate blades."

"And this is a real sport? Men and women dancing around on ice?"

"Unfortunately." John says with a grimace.

"Your planet's weird."

"Mmm, you can say that again." he says, as they reach his quarters and he swipes his hand over the wall panel. As the doors open, they stop just before entering as they hear Carter saying, "Colonel."

They turn to face her and she directs her words at John, "I was just coming to see you. Do you have a minute?"

"Yeah, sure."

Carter glances nervously in Ronon's direction, "I received a message from Stargate Command. I'm afraid I have some bad news."

John looks from her, to Ronon and back, "ok."

"Your father suffered a heart attack last night. I'm sorry John. But he passed away." she tells him and sharing a look with Ronon, she turns and walks away.

John stands there in shocked silence, watching her walk away, but not really seeing her.

"Hey buddy, you okay?" Ronon asks, concern lacing his words. Getting no answer, he punches John lightly in the shoulder, "Sheppard?"

Still staring off into space, "yeah."

"Are you okay?"

Coming back to his senses a little more, "yeah. I'm good."

Getting the hint that he doesn't want to talk about it, "you want some time?"

Looking him in the eyes, "yeah, I'll see you later." he says, and heads into his quarters.

Turning and heading for his quarters, he hits his radio, "Ronon to Control."

"Go ahead Ronon."

"I need a secure line."

"Go ahead, line is secure."

"Lexi, come in, this is Ronon."

"Go ahead Ronon. What's up?"

Reaching his quarters, "you might want to go see Sheppard."

"Is everything, okay?"

"Um, no."

"All right. I'll go see him, Carter out."

As the link closes, he grabs a bag and starts to pack, happy that John will be getting the support he needs right now. He isn't positive that John and Lexi are seeing each other, _but what could it hurt?_ and he goes about packing.

Having spoken to Ronon, Lexi double checks that her afternoon is free and finding that it is, she heads out for his quarters.

John had walked into his quarters, shutting the doors behind him. Walking over to his bed, he sits down and runs his hands through his hair, not knowing what to do first. Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, he knows he should be packing to go back to Earth, but right now all his is certain of is that he is really torn. On the one hand, he knows he doesn't want to go back and have to deal with his family, such as it is. But the rational part of him, knows that he has to go and sitting there feeling like he is going to go crazy with inactivity, he gets up and starts packing.

Ten minutes later, as he is putting clothes into his duffel, his doors open and McKay walks in, "hey. I, uh, heard what happened. I'm very sorry."

"Thanks."

As he puts the last few items into his duffel, McKay walks closer to the bed, "you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Watching him zip up the duffel, "you know, I requested to go back with you. But the ancient device at M7G-677 is malfunctioning."

Standing up and grimacing, "that the planet with all the kids?"

Grimacing as well, "yeah."

"Well, that should be fun for you."

"Yeah well, believe me, I'd get out of it if I could, but without the E.M. field they're an easy target for the wraith. I guess it's just bad timing."

Tossing his bag to the end of the bed, "hey, don't worry about it."

They look at each other awkwardly for a second, "if you wanna...you know...talk or..."

"Rodney...I'm fine."

Taking the hint from his look to leave it alone, he coughs a little and walks out of the room.

John watches McKay leave the room and mentally shuts the door behind the departing physicist. He slumps down onto the couch, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Staring at the floor, he thinks back to what Lexi had said a couple of months back, about how things were going to get crazy, when the door chimes.

Not looking up, he groans internally, "Rodney, I told you I'm fine."

"John, it's me."

Hearing Lexi's voice on the other side of the door, he stands up and walks over to the door, swiping the wall pad to unlock it. He steps aside to let her in and as the doors close, he just stands there, hands in his pocket.

She takes one look at him and steps up to him, clasping her arms around his neck and looking up into his eyes, which she can tell are moist with tears that he won't let come, "what happened?"

"My dad, he ah..." he can't finish the sentence and instead he pulls her into him and holds her.

Hugging him tight, "John, I'm so sorry." and pulling away a little, looking up at him, "what can I do?"

Locking eyes with her, "I guess, just be here when I get back."

Kissing him and pulling him into a hug again, "of course."

Sighing, "I really don't want to face Dave."

Grimacing, "don't be hard on your brother."

Glaring at her, "it's not my fault."

"John, bury the hatchet as the saying goes, or at least try to. He's family."

"Fine, I'll try. I can't promise that it'll happen, but I'll give it a shot." and letting go of her and walking over to grab his duffel, "hey walk me to the Gate?"

"Are you sure it won't look too weird?"

"I don't think so and anyways, you can always say you were heading up to see Sam." he says coming over to her and leaning down to kiss her again.

"Okay." she says through the kiss.

With that they leave his quarters and head for the Gate room. When they get there, she leaves him standing in front of the Gate and heads back to her office. As she walks away from him, she passes Ronon who nods to her and noticing his bag, she smiles at him. He smiles back at her and walks over to stand beside John, to await the finishing of the dialing sequence.

Noticing that Ronon is now standing next to him, "where are you goin?"

"With you." Ronon says and as the Gate kawhooshes, he heads towards it. Frowning, John follows him through the Gate.

xxxx

They attend the wake, where John introduces Ronon to Dave and Nancy. While at the wake they are approached by Ava, who tells them that there is a Replicator loose on Earth. Eventually they learn that Ava is also a Replicator, but in the end, they download her consciousness into a virtual world as a reward for saving Ronon and John from the renegade Replicator.

After checking up on Ava in the virtual reality, John comes out of the machine to be greeted by Dr. Lee and Ronon. They chat and as they are about to finish up, Ronon asks, "yeah, so we headin back?"

Looking at him, "yeah. You go ahead. I've got a few things to take care of."

As he leaves the room, Ronon watches him go with a frown on his face. But figuring that he will be okay, he beams down to the SGC and begins the trip back to Atlantis, stopping over at the Midway station for the mandatory twenty-four hour quarantine.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chap. 15:

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**

John is in the cab a good five minutes, before he finally remembers that he had told Lexi he would try to go easy on Dave. About twenty minutes later, the cab pulls up the drive to his dad's house. He gets out of the back seat and mentally stealing himself he walks to the front door. After running his right hand over the back of his head, he knocks on the door. Dave opens it a few seconds later, a look of shock on his face. John stares back at him with a smirk.

Nodding and returning the smirk, "come in."

Smiling, John walks in past his brother, who also smiles and after closing the door, leads John into the study. He sits down behind their dad's desk, watching John walk around the room, looking at the old family photos, especially the ones of their mom, "so what brings you by?"

Stopping in front of and looking at the big portrait of their mother that is hanging over the fireplace "oh you know. I thought we could finish our conversation from earlier."

"So you've changed your mind about the will?"

Turning to look at him, anger evident on his face and walking over to sit in one of the chairs across from him, "no Dave. Like I said earlier, you've got nothing to worry about. I'll go with whatever it says. I just you know..." he trails off, the anger draining away and sadness creeping in, in its place, "well, what you said about dad regretting what had happened between the two of us. Was it true?"

"Yeah. It was true. He did regret it. He loved you John."

Shifting uncomfortably in the chair, trying to find a position that won't bother his upper body, "he could have fooled me."

Not having missed him shifting in the chair, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just tired." he grits out through clenched teeth and taking a slow breath and exhaling slowly as well, "so how've you been?"

Realizing at that moment how much like their dad John is, stubborn to no end, "I've been good. The business is going well. I took over a while back, as dad had semi retired."

"When was that?"

"Oh, about two years ago. He wanted to play more golf."

"Really? I never thought dad was the kind of man to just stop working."

"Well, he didn't really stop. He was still involved in the big decisions. But the every day stuff he left to me. Anyway, let's get down to business. The executor let me know this morning what dad's will said, so what should we do with what he left you?"

Gritting his teeth again, as another wave of pain washes over him and subsides, "oh, I don't know."

Seeing him wincing again, but not wanting to anger him, "well, I have to say I was a little surprised, but he left you half of everything."

Completely shocked, "really?"

"Yeah."

"Wow. Okay. Well, why don't I give you my bank info and you can have the executor put my shares in it. As for everything else, you just hang onto it for now. I'm ah, not in the position right now to take care of it."

Raising an eyebrow in confusion, "ah, okay," and taking out a pad and pen, "here, I'll take care of it first thing in the morning."

John takes the pen and paper and writes down the info. As he leans back in the chair, his back and shoulder start to ache and a wave of dizziness sweeps over him, but he ignores it.

Taking the pen and paper back, "so. Now that that's settled, do you feel up to dinner? Kathy would love to meet you."

"Who's Kathy?"

"She's my fiancée and she should be home in about half an hour."

"When did you get engaged?"

"About three months ago. She's the VP of publicity for the company and she's a hell of a cook."

Thinking about it for a second, "sure. That sounds great."

"Great. How about we watch some TV while we wait?"

Standing up, John has to put a hand on the desk to help steady himself and following Dave into the den, he takes a seat in the oversized recliner he used to sit in when he had lived in the house as a kid. Eyeing the television, "nice set up."

"Thanks. Kathy says I'm insane to have such a big screen. But hey, for football is there any better way to view the game?"

Nodding his head in agreement, John stops half way as his vision starts to cloud over. Instead, he offers a half smile in response and he and Dave chat about the old times, before the fight that had led to the estrangement.

Half an hour later, "honey are you home?" echoes through the house, announcing the arrival of Kathy.

Dave turns around to face the door leading into the den, "Kathy we're in the den."

"What do you mean we're in the..." and walking into the den, seeing John sitting there, "oh, you must be John."

"Yeah, nice to meet you." he says standing up, smiling to hide the wave of pain that shoots through his shoulder and back as he stands and shakes her hand.

Moving to sit down next to Dave on the couch, "so what were you boys talking about?" she asks, looking at them, taking off her heels and curling her legs up under her.

"Oh, we've been catching up and I was telling John how good of a cook you are." Dave says taking hold of her hand and smiling at her

"Thanks honey. So what are you in the mood for? I have a brisket all ready to go."

"John, what do you think? It's mom's recipe."

Head pounding, but not wanting to miss the chance at having his mom's brisket, "that sounds great."

Eyeing him with obvious concern, as she notices that his color has paled in just the few minutes she has been in the room, "are you feeling all right?"

Inwardly groaning, "yeah, Kathy. I just have a headache."

"Is that all?" she asks concern lacing her voice.

"Well no. I also haven't eaten since this morning."

"All right. Let me get to making that brisket." and turning to Dave, "honey why don't you go get the Tylenol from my medicine cabinet."

They stand up and as she heads for the kitchen, he follows her, but not before, "hey, how about some chips or something?"

Stomach growling, "yeah that sounds great, but Tylenol first, please."

"Sure, I'll be back in ten."

Watching Dave walk out of the den, John reclines the chair and leaning his head back, closes his eyes, trying to dull the drums that are now playing in his head.

"John?"

Opening his eyes, he sees Dave standing right next to him, holding out a water bottle and a couple of Tylenol, a look of concern on his face.

"Ah, thanks. I was just resting my eyes." he says, taking the pills and water and swallowing them. Placing the water bottle down, he sees a tray of finger sandwiches, "hand me one of those, I'm starving."

Dave moves over to the table and picks up the tray of sandwiches and passes it to him, watching in wonder as he scarfs them down, "feel better?"

"Yeah, thanks." and catching the smirk on Dave's face, "what?"

"Nothing, it's just..."

"Yeah?"

"I've missed you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Dad wasn't the only one who regretted what happened. I lost my younger brother because of it."

"Well, I'm here aren't I?"

"Would you have come back if dad hadn't died? No. You would've just stayed wherever you were, doing g-d knows what."

Grimacing, "look, I was wrong. You're right. I wouldn't have come home. I thought that you and dad had just written me off, so I figured I'd do the same. It doesn't however mean that I didn't think of the two of you, or miss you."

Glaring at him for a second, he can see the little boy who had followed him everywhere when they were growing up, "we were all wrong. I don't think mom would've wanted us to not talk or see each other for so long. I even said as much to dad."

"You did?"

"Yeah. I had a feeling that you wouldn't make the first move. So I tried convincing him that he should. I think he had actually finally agreed to it, but then."

"Well dinner should be ready in thirty minutes." Kathy says, completely oblivious to what she has just walked in on.

"That's great, can't wait. Shall we watch something while we wait?" Dave says, returning his attention to the TV.

"Yeah, whatever's on is fine by me." John says as he leans back in the chair again, replaying the conversation in his head and not really paying attention to anything else. Therefore, he doesn't notice that the thirty minutes have passed until he hears Kathy calling his name, "huh?"

"I was just saying that dinner is ready."

"Oh great, thanks." he says as he gets up to walk into the kitchen. Reaching the kitchen, he takes a seat on Dave's left, and Kathy sits on Dave's right.

They chat about this and that. Kathy does most of the talking. Telling him about how Dave proposed and how they had met.

By the time he walks to the door to get into the cab that has arrived to take him back to the airport for his 'flight back' to Colorado and the SGC, he has already promised to come back to visit as soon as he can.

Pulling him into a hug, "now don't be a stranger." Kathy says.

Pulling away with a smile, to hide the wince, "I won't, I promise." and then he is standing in front of Dave, who hands him a small box.

"What's this?" he asks, looking down at it and opening it he gasps.

"She wanted you to have it. Dad made sure to leave it to you."

Still looking at the contents of the box, which is holding his mother's favorite ring, "wow." is all that he manages to say, as he looks up. He takes Dave's outstretched hand to shake it and then Dave is pulling him into a hug, "take care, John and be careful."

Pulling away from his brother he smiles and walks to the cab. Before he gets in, he turns and waves at Dave and Kathy, who are standing in the doorway.

xxxx

About two hours later around 2200 hours SGC time, John is walking into the Gate room, carrying his duffel as Cameron Mitchell and SG-2 are coming back from a mission.

"Hey Mitchell, how ya doin?"

"Good, Sheppard. Hey sorry about your dad. You headin back?"

"Yeah and thanks." and out of no where the pain in his shoulder, chest and back flares up in such anger that it has him dropping his bag and doubling over in pain, gripping at his chest and trying to catch his breath. He falls to his knees, his vision starting to gray around the edges and somewhere in his head he hears Mitchell screaming for a "med team to the Gate room, stat!"

The next thing that registers through the agony is the feeling of gentle hands checking him over, but he can't figure out why. All he knows is that he can't breathe. He tries to bat the light that they are shining in his eyes away, but they grab his arms and strap them down. And as the feeling of the oxygen mask being placed over his nose and mouth registers in his brain, he finally lets the darkness take him.

xxxx

Doctor Lam had been in her office when Mitchell's voice came over the loudspeaker. Bolting out of her chair, she and a med team rushed to the Gate room to find him kneeling over John.

"Colonel, what happened?" she asks, as she starts checking John over.

"We were talking and then he just doubled over." and looking at her, "Carolyn, what's going on?"

Standing up and nodding to the med team to move, she gestures for him to follow her, "it looks like his lung has collapsed."

Whistling through his teeth, as they reach the infirmary watching as the med team gets John stabilized, "will he be okay?"

"I'm not sure. But I'll know more once I get him into surgery." and walking away from him, looking over her shoulder, "Cam, go get changed and let the General know that the Colonel won't be heading back to Atlantis tonight."

"Okay." he says, and he heads for the locker room to change. Ten minutes later he is heading up to the General's office and knocking on the door, "sir?"

"Come in Mitchell."

"Sir, I don't know if someone has let you know, but Colonel Sheppard is in surgery."

"Why son, what happened?"

"Dr. Lam believes his lung collapsed. You might want to let Sam know."

Sighing, "very well. I'll have Walter relay the message. Are you heading back down to the infirmary now?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, keep me up to date."

"Will do, sir." Mitchell says as he turns and heads back down to the infirmary. Two hours later, he smiles as Lamb walks out of the infirmary, looking tired but pleased.

Standing up as she comes to a stop in front of him, "How is he?"

"He should be fine. I re-inflated his lung and inserted a chest tube."

They sit down, "what happened?" he asks.

"Well, he fractured a rib and it punctured his right lung. I don't know how it was missed. I mean I thought he was checked over on the Apollo this evening after his encounter with the Replicator," and seeing the confusion on his face, she snorts out a slight laugh, "long story. Anyway, I'm gonna kill whoever did the check up, because this should've been caught."

Putting a hand on her shoulder, "you did a good job. When will he be conscious?"

Smiling and scrubbing her hands over her face, "well he's in recovery right now. The chest tube will have to stay in for a few days and I kept him on the vent to give his lung some time to rest. But he should be coming around in about an hour. I'll take him off of the vent as soon as he's conscious."

Squeezing her shoulder and smiling, "I hope you have him restrained."

"Yeah, I've learned from dealing with you." she says patting him on the thigh.

"When can he have visitors?"

"Once he's conscious. Are you heading off base tonight or staying here?"

"I'm staying here. I'm on early tomorrow."

"Great. I'll radio you to let you know. Why don't you go get some sleep?"

"Good idea." and standing up, "I'll see you later and you should do the same."

"When he's awake." and at the look on his face, "I promise. Night Cam."

"Night."

xxxx

"Colonel, can you open your eyes for me?"

Hearing the unfamiliar voice, John tries to comply. But as he does so, pain and exhaustion threaten to pull him back under. Giving up on trying to open his eyes for a moment, he runs through the mental checklist, _tired? Check. Sore? Check. Pain? Not anymore. Breathing? Ah wait just a second. Why is there a tube down my throat?_

As the realization that he's not the one doing the breathing hits him head on, his eyes snap open. Darting them around the room, he feels his heart thundering in his chest as he doesn't recognize his surroundings. Really starting to panic, as he can't seem to remember what happened or where he is, he zeros in on the erratic beeping that is blaring off to his left.

Closing his eyes as the room is starting to spin on him, he startles a little as he feels a gentle grip on his left shoulder and opening his eyes again, he focuses on the owner of that hand as, "Colonel, it's okay, you're in the SGC infirmary on Earth and you're fine." cuts through the haze of panic.

Blinking his eyes a couple of times to bring the person standing next to him into focus, _okay I'm on Earth, yeah I remember that _and the beeping starts to slow.

"That's it. Now I need you to stop moving and I'll take out the tube."

_Okay I can do that._

"Okay, on the count of three I need you to blow out as hard as you can."

He nods his head.

"Okay, 1, 2, 3."

Blowing out as hard as he can, he coughs as his lungs desperately try to get air into them on their own. He feels Doctor Lam putting a nasal cannula under his nose and takes in a deep breath, "what?"

"Hang on a sec." she grabs a cup with some ice cubes and puts one in his mouth.

He sucks on it, smiling as the cool liquid slides down his parched throat and then, "what happened?"

"Why don't you tell me, Colonel?" she asks, eyeing him in concern.

He closes his eyes and takes a couple of seconds, "I..." he opens his eyes, "I fought the damn Replicator, he threw me against a crate..."

"And?" she asks putting another ice chip in his mouth and undoing the restraints.

Gladly accepting the ice chip and rubbing his wrists, "and I..."

She takes out her penlight and shining it in his eyes, "how's your head?"

Wincing as the light hits his eyes and turning his head away from it, "fine, although it's probably from all the pain meds you've got running through me." he says, looking at her grimly.

"Good, at least they're working." she says, with a smile and moving to the end of the bed she makes a note on his chart, "so, you were saying?"

He shuts his eyes again, trying to blink the image of the light from them, "we beamed him to the atmosphere and we headed back up to the Apollo to try and figure out what we were going to do with Ava."

Opening his eyes, he sees her handing him the cup with the ice chips and taking it from her, he pops one in, "I made sure that Ronon was checked over by the Apollo's doc. We figured out what to do with Ava and then I went to see my brother. I came back here and then..." he trails off, not able to remember the rest.

"It's okay, don't worry. I wouldn't expect you to remember passing out." she says, kindness in her voice, as she smiles and continues, "when you fought with the Replicator, you fractured a rib which at some point punctured your right lung." her expression turns serious, "I'm surprised you weren't in pain."

He looks away from her, not wanting her to see the guilt, "it wasn't that bad."

"Really? Okay then. Anyway, I re-inflated your lung and you'll have to keep the chest tube in for a few days, but you are going to be okay." and leaning down to check the fluid bags attached to his catheter and the chest tube, "you said that you made sure that Ronon got checked over, but did you?"

He turns his head in her direction again, but doesn't say anything.

Standing up, glimpsing the last bit of guilt in his eyes, "Colonel, did you get checked out on the Apollo?"

"Of course he didn't Carolyn."

Looking past Doctor Lam, he sees General Landry walking into the infirmary with Mitchell right behind him, "sir. Mitchell."

"Son, you gave us a scare. Although I do have to say, after dealing with Mitchell over here, nothing surprises me anymore."

"Why thank you sir." Mitchell says smiling.

Doctor Lam just rolls her eyes and looks at John and then checking his vitals again, she takes out a syringe and empties its contents into the IV in his arm.

Looking at her, worry plastered across his face, "what was that?"

"Don't worry, just something to help you sleep, it should take effect soon," and turning to face the General and Mitchell, "which means you can stay for a couple of minutes, and that's it." and looking back at John, "so you didn't get checked out on the Apollo?" she asks, making some more notes on his chart and taking his temp.

"I felt fine after the whole thing, and well." he says looking at her and then at General Landry, "I'm sorry sir."

"Don't worry about it Colonel. But I have to say, it was a dumb idea on your part." and looking at Doctor Lam, "Carolyn how's he doing?"

"Well, his o2 levels are still a little low, but they'll come up by this morning and he doesn't have a fever. So I'd say, barring any complications, he can head back this evening." and looking sternly at John, "I'm gonna say no duty for at least four weeks and then I'll leave it up to Dr. Keller."

"All right, I'll send that through to Colonel Carter." and turning to John, "get some sleep, Sheppard."

"Yes sir." he says, and yawning as the sedative starts to take affect, "thank you, sir."

As his eyes start to close he feels a tap on his shin and hears Mitchell, "have a good night Sheppard."

All he can do is grunt his response, as he finally feels the sedative assert itself fully, pulling him into a dreamless sleep.

Walking towards the exit, "you gonna get some sleep now, Carolyn?"

"Yeah, Cam. I suggest you do the same."

"I will, but will you let me walk you to your quarters first?"

Smiling and taking his arm, "why thank you."


	16. Chapter 16

**Chap. 16:

* * *

**

Carter is sitting in her quarters, reading a book. One that has nothing to do with any of the work that she still has sitting on her desk. _But it's your day off_, and as she rereads the same line she has been reading for the past hour, she sighs. Giving up on reading, she puts the book down and just as she stands up, her radio goes off.

"Colonel Carter this is the Control room, come in please."

Tapping the radio, "go ahead."

"Ma'am, I just received an urgent message from the SGC."

"I'm on my way." and walking out of her quarters, she heads for the Control room. Reaching it, "put the message up on the view screen please." she asks the technician on duty and turning towards the screen, she sees Walter on the it, "SGC to Atlantis, Colonel Sheppard has been injured. He's in stable condition, but Dr. Lam requests a med team to come back to Earth to transfer him back to Atlantis, the twenty four hour quarantine will be waved. Communication 2410 SGC time. SGC out."

Turning to the technician again, "please have Major Lorne and Dr. Keller meet me in the conference room."

"Yes ma'am."

She heads into the conference room, as she hears the call go out over the intercom. She only has to wait five minutes for the two aforementioned people to show up.

As they sit down, "thanks for coming. I just received an urgent message from the SGC. It turns out that Sheppard was injured back on Earth and they want a med team to gate back to bring him back to Atlantis. The quarantine will be waved."

"Colonel, did they say what the injury was?"

"No, Jennifer. But they did say that he was stable." and seeing Keller getting up to leave, "hang on a sec, I want you to bring Ronon back with you, too."

"Of course. I'll be ready in twenty." she says as she walks out of the conference room.

"Colonel?"

"Yes, Major."

"Am I right to assume that I'll be continuing in Sheppard's stead until he's healed."

"Let's wait and see what the doctors say. But most likely yes."

Sighing, "you know, I don't know if I've ever known anyone who gets into as much trouble as he does."

Looking at him and chuckling, "oh, I know a few."

Looking at her and realizing who she is talking about, he smiles, "all right, Colonel. I'll continue to take care of things." and getting up to leave, "isn't it your day off?"

She stands up as well and falls into step with him, "yeah, but I think I'm gonna go take care of the paperwork that's sitting on my desk."

"Colonel."

"Evan, it's fine. I'll let you know when Sheppard is back." and leaving him in the Control room, she heads into her office.

Deciding to go grab some lunch, he heads for the mess, tapping his radio as he is walking, "Major Lorne to Dr. Carter."

"Evan, what can I do for you?"

"Feel like some lunch?"

"Sure, meet you in the mess in ten?"

"Sounds good, see you then."

xxxx

Ten minutes later, Lexi walks into the mess to see Lorne sitting at a table, chatting with Doctor Engle. She walks over to them, "Jamie, how are you? Evan didn't tell me you were joining us."

"Ah, no. I'm not." and smiling at Lorne, "he wouldn't let me go until I had said yes to a movie night, tonight."

Sitting down next to her, "just don't let him make you watch _Wedding Crashers_."

"I wasn't going to make her watch it again."

"Good, because honestly I don't know how you watch that movie over and over."

"Look who's talking." and getting up, "anyway, we getting lunch or not."

Getting up as well, "yeah, let's. Jamie I'm sorry you couldn't stay."

"Don't worry about it Lexi, I have to get back to the lab. We have some new plants we need to catalog." and with a kiss to Lorne's cheek, she heads for the door, "I'll see you later." she says over her shoulder.

A few minutes later as they sit back down, with their trays and dig into the food, "Lexi, um."

Looking at him, "what is it?"

He hesitates a couple more seconds, not really sure if he should tell her and figuring that she is bound to find out anyhow, "Colonel Sheppard was injured."

She nearly chokes on her drink, "Wh..what? When?"

"Yesterday, back on Earth."

"Is he okay?"

Taking her hand in his, "yes, he's stable and Dr. Keller has gone back to get him. They should be getting back sometime tonight."

"Okay." she says, her hand going straight for the chain around her neck.

Noticing this, "Lexi, what is that?" he asks, pointing at the chain

She quickly draws her hand away from it, "oh, um, just a necklace."

Eyeing her, as if knowing and lowering his voice so that only she can hear him, "did Sheppard give it to you?"

She just nods her head.

"Lexi, he's stable and I'm sure Dr. Lam took good care of him."

"I'm sure she did." she says, allowing a weak smile to form on her lips and changing the subject, "so what movie are you going to watch tonight?"

"Oh I don't know." he says, around bites of his food, "any suggestions?"

"Well what type of movies does Jamie like?" she asks, taking a sip of her tea.

"Romantic Comedies, I guess."

"How about _The Princess Bride_? I brought my copy from home."

"Ooh, yeah that would be great!"

"Okay, after lunch we'll swing by my quarters and I'll find it."

"Thanks."

They finish their lunch and head to her quarters. Finding the movie, she hands it to him, "okay, so enjoy the film and Evan."

"Yeah?"

"Have fun." she says, with a twinkle in her eye.

He hugs her and leaves her in her quarters. She watches him go and not knowing what to do, she decides to head back to her office to do some work. Figuring that she is going to be in for a couple of sleepless nights and busy days.

xxxx

After picking up Ronon at the Midway station, he and Keller arrive at 0330 SGC time where Doctor Kevin Thomas meets them.

"Dr. Thomas, how are you?"

"I'm well, Dr. Keller, and you?"

"I'll be good once you've taken me to see the Colonel."

Ronon grunts his agreement and stepping back a little from him, obviously threatened, "very well, if you'll just follow me. Dr. Lam is sleeping but she left instructions to be woken up when you arrived. So she should be with us shortly." and reaching the infirmary, "ah speak of the devil. Dr. Lam, I wasn't expecting you to beat us here."

"Yes well, I couldn't sleep. So I figured I'd come down and check on Sheppard." and smiling at Keller, "welcome back."

"Thanks, Carolyn. How is he?"

Leading them over to John, "he's stable and I have him sedated. He fractured a rib in the fight with the Replicator and it punctured his right lung."

"What? He seemed fine when he left me on the Apollo."

"Ronon, sometimes these things take time to develop. However, if he'd gotten checked over on the Apollo after the incident, I've a feeling the lung wouldn't have collapsed."

"That's Sheppard for you. Can he be moved?"

"Yes. But, I'd like to watch him for a couple more hours, before releasing him. At least until later this morning." and noticing that Ronon is already making a bee line for John's bed, "Ronon, why don't you go wait in guest quarters?"

"I'm not leaving."

Nodding at him, "Ronon, go ahead and sit with him." and motioning for Doctor Lam to come with her, "Dr. Lam and I will be right back."

Watching him as he sits down next to John's bed, placing his feet on the end of the bed, "he shouldn't stay here."

"Carolyn, I'm sure in all your time here you've seen teammates not leave each others side when one is recovering."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Good. So, can I have a look at his chart?"

"Sure, I'll leave him in your care now. It's at the end of his bed."

"Great. Thanks." and starting to walk over to John's bed, she looks over her shoulder, "why don't you go get some sleep."

"Good idea. It was good to see you, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances."

"You too." Keller says, as she reaches John's bed, nodding at Ronon as she does so and leaning over him, hooking her stethoscope into her ears and pulling down his gown, "heart rate and breath sounds are good." she says out loud a couple of seconds later, knowing that Ronon won't really be paying attention.

Straightening up, she wraps her stethoscope around her shoulders and after retying his gown around his neck she reaches for the thermometer that is sitting on the tray next to her, inserting it in his ear. A few seconds later, "well that's not good." she says, as she sees the reading on the screen.

Placing the thermometer down on the tray again, she walks down to the end of the bed and picking up the chart, she reads the notes that Doctor Lam had written about the surgery and adding her own, "Ronon, we'll be getting out of here by 0800. I want to get him home as soon as possible."

Looking at her, "why? Don't you trust Dr. Lam?"

"I do. But I prefer treating him on my own turf." she says with a smile and hooking the chart on the end of the bed again, "I'm gonna head to the mess and grab a coffee, you want anything?"

"Water."

She pats his shoulder and as she heads out the door, "okay, be back soon."

Ten minutes later, "Ronon?"

"Yeah."

"Here."

Reaching for the bottle she is handing him, "thanks. He okay?"

Sitting down on a chair on the other side of the bed and looking across at him, "he's gonna be fine. Dr. Lam did a great job."

"When will he be back on duty?"

Sighing, "well, Dr. Lam noted that she wants him off duty for four weeks and then light duty for another two. But."

"But?"

"But, I want to wait until we get him back to Atlantis before I settle on a time frame. If he comes through traveling back with no problems, then we'll see."

"So it might be less?"

"Ronon, he's got a fractured rib, which means that he shouldn't be doing any crazy stuff for six weeks at least. But knowing him, I'll be hard pressed to get him to take it easy for a week." and seeing the look on Ronon's face, "look, as I said, we'll see what happens when we get back. I'm not making any promises." and smiling at the nod he gives her, she settles back in her chair.

Every couple of hours she checks on John and after the second check, she puts in the request for them to be allowed to head back to Atlantis. Around 0800, Doctor Lam walks into the infirmary and sees the two of them still sitting by his bed.

Coming over and looking at his chart, "well, I guess it was too much to hope that his temp would stay down."

Looking at her, "yeah. I'm not happy about it." and standing up, "we're actually leaving now."

"Really?" and seeing Keller's nod, "well okay then. Have a safe trip back."

Smiling, "thanks." and helping the nurses transfer John onto a waiting gurney, she nods to Ronon and the nurses to start moving.

They slowly make their way to the Gate room where they are met by General Landry, "well Dr. Keller, take good care of him and pass our regards on to Colonel Carter."

As the Gate activates and they start rolling the gurney up the ramp, "I will General and thank you."

xxxx

Groggy and if he's honest with himself, completely drained, John slowly surfaces through the fog of a drugged sleep, letting out a low moan at the fact that someone is trying to wake him up. Trying his hardest to ignore the voice, he keeps his eyes closed and does a mental check of how he is feeling, _headache? Check. Nauseous? Not really._ and shifting slightly in the bed, _sore chest. Oh, right, collapsed lung._

"Colonel, I need you to open your eyes for me."

Finally paying attention to the voice, John's brain recognizes Keller's voice as the one that had woken him and even though it is a struggle, he cracks his eyes open. Only to have a bright light hit him in the eyes, "ouch, that hurts!" he croaks out

"Sorry, Colonel. Can you open your eyes again for me please?"

Slowly opening his eyes and letting them focus on her, "throat's...sore." he manages to get out.

Smiling and reaching for the glass that is sitting on the table next to his bed, bringing it up to his lips, "that's it, nice and easy." she says, and letting go of the cup, she goes about taking his temp.

A few seconds later as the thermometer beeps, she takes it out of his ear and looking down at it, "Marie..." she says, turning away from him, "get me 10 cc's of Vancomycin."

Finishing the water, "what's wrong?"

Looking at the monitors, which are showing her numbers that she's not too happy with, "it's probably nothing." she says, taking the cup from him and placing it down on the tray next to her.

"Doctor..." Marie says, coming over and handing her the syringe.

As she inserts the syringe into the IV, "thanks."

"Doc, why are you giving me vancom...whatcha macallit?"

"It's Vancomycin and I'm giving it to you because I want to try and keep ahead of the infection that you're fighting." and reaching to untie his gown, she leans over him and listening to his chest with her stethoscope, "how do you feel and be honest?"

Flinching, "ah, that's cold."

"Sorry and you didn't answer my question. How do you feel, any chills or headache?"

Scowling at her as she reties his scrub top, "my head's killing me and I'm hot."

"Anything else?"

"Chest is sore."

"Okay, well thankfully your lungs sound clear. On a scale of 1-10 how bad's the pain?"

Considering her question and closing his eyes, as the room seems to be doing a tilt a whirl, "a 3."

"John."

Squinting his eyes open, he sees the exasperation on her face and sighing, "fine. It's a four."

Eyeing him as if knowing that he's not being honest and matching his sigh, "all right. I'll be right back." she says, and heading out of his room, she walks over to a medicine cabinet, and unlocking it, she takes out a vial and a syringe. Walking back into the his room and inserting the needle into the vial, she takes out 50 mg of the pain medication and inserts it into the IV, "there you go, that should kick in soon."

Closing his eyes again, as a shiver runs through him, "c..co..cold." he stutters out and the next thing he knows he feels another blanket being laid on top of him and as his teeth stop chattering, "that's…better."

"Yeah, well, get some rest. I'll come by and check on you in a while."

Forcing his eyes open, as the pain medication is finally asserting itself, "hey doc...where...is everyone?"

Stopping halfway between the bed and the door, she turns around and comes back over to the side of the bed, "you've been pretty out of it."

Suddenly very worried, as he realizes he has no idea what day it is or what time, "how long?"

"You've been out for three days. Well two total here on Atlantis, as you were sedated when we brought you back. We were able to remove the chest tube yesterday. But I kicked everyone out of here about five hours ago, being that it's 0350."

"Oh." he says, as he can't believe that he doesn't remember any of it.

"John, don't worry, just get some sleep. Your body needs it more than anything right now."

"O...kay." he mumbles out, his eyes drifting shut.

She watches as his breathing evens out and walking out of the little room, she is surprised to see the person who is walking towards her, "Lexi, what're you doing here? I thought I told you to get some sleep."

Stopping right in front of Keller, shrugging, "couldn't sleep."

Scanning her over, noticing the dark circles under her eyes, looking dead on her feet, "oh really?" and seeing her shrug again, "okay then. He just fell back to sleep, but go ahead and sit with him." and stepping aside to let her pass, "but Lexi, I'll be coming by in a couple hours to check on him. When I do, I'll want you to go get some sleep. I'll make it an order if I have to."

Walking into the room, talking over her shoulder, "I promise Jen." and bringing her attention to John, she stops short. Taking in every inch of him, she doesn't miss the fact that even though he has two blankets on top of him, he is still shivering.

Coming over to the side of the bed, she sits down on the edge of it and as she pulls the blankets further up his chest, she sees his eyes fluttering open. Smiling down at him, as she isn't surprised that he's fighting the sedative and brushing a piece of hair out of his eyes, "hey you, welcome back to the land of the living."

Bringing his right hand out from under the blankets, he takes her hand in his, "hey back…I missed you."

Leaning over, she kisses him and as she sits back up, "I missed you too."

Locking eyes with her, he doesn't miss the tears that are threatening to fall, "Lexi…what's wrong?"

"John, you're really stupid, you know that?"

Sighing, "ugh, here it comes."

Sighing as well, "yes, here it comes." she shouts, and swiping at the tears that she can no longer hold back, "if you'd just let the doctors on the Apollo check you over, none of this would have happened."

"Lexi, don't cry. I'm here and…I'm gonna be okay. Keller's…gonna see to that."

Taking in a breath to calm herself, "I know, but." she takes another breath, "I love you." and before he can say anything, "and don't worry if you can't say it back right now, I'm good with that. I just needed to let you know."

Staring at her, a little shocked, but recovering quickly, "Lexi, I'm not sure…what to say." he says, as he feels his eyes closing again.

"John, as I said, don't worry. You can say it or not say it. I'm not going anywhere, okay."

"Mmm, Hmm." he manages to get out before he can't keep his eyes open any longer and he falls asleep again.

Smiling to herself as she sees him fall asleep again, she squeezes his hand and letting go of it, she gets up and grabs a blanket from the other bed in the room, wrapping herself in it. Sitting back down in the chair, she takes his hand again and rests her head on her arm, falling asleep in an instant.

xxxx

About four hours later, Keller walks into the room, nose buried in her tablet, reading over something. Looking up from it as she comes to a stop on John's left side, she frowns at the sight that meets her eyes. Placing her tablet down on the tray and picking up the thermometer, "Lexi?"

Eyes snapping open and letting go of John's hand before sitting up, "what? What's wrong? Is he okay?"

Looking up at her from the thermometer, which just beeped, "he's doing a little better. Why don't you go back to your quarters?"

Stretching out her neck, "no I'm good."

Opening her mouth to order Lexi to bed, but realizing that John is waking up, "good morning Colonel. How do you feel?"

Blinking his eyes a couple of times and settling them on Lexi, "better." and tearing them away from her, he looks at Keller, "doc, did you guys bring my bag back?"

"Yes, it's in your quarters."

"Great, thanks." he says, as he refocuses on Lexi and noticing how tired she looks, "Lexi, I'm good."

Searching his face for any hint that he's not telling the truth and finding none, she stands up, "all right, I think I will go get some sleep. I'll be back later."

Before she can walk out, "oh hey Lexi."

She turns to look at him, "yes John?"

"Thanks for the advice about my brother." he says, with the best smile he can muster.

"No problem." she says, as she turns and leaves the room with a smile of her own.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chap. 17:

* * *

**

Five days later, Lexi walks into John's room to the sounds of Keller arguing with him about being let out of bed. Hearing the argument, she immediately knows why she had seen Ronon, McKay and Teyla all leaving the infirmary as quickly as they could.

"Colonel, you're still running a fever and until it breaks, you're staying in bed. Even if it means you have to deal with the catheter."

Seeing the frustration emanating from Keller and the daggers that John is throwing at her, she coughs to let them know that she is in the room, "Jen, can I have a word?"

Turning her head to look at her, "Lexi, what is it?"

"Please can we just step outside."

Glaring one more time at John, she follows her out of the room. As they stop, just outside of it, "okay, we're outside. What?"

"I know that he's still running a temp, but is it high enough that he needs to stay in bed?"

"No, but..." she says crossing her arms.

Seeing the anger starting to diminish, "look, if it's only a low grade temp, then don't you think it'd be a good idea to have him start moving around?"

Sighing, "true. It's just with the catheter out, he can escape back to his quarters."

Laughing and heading back into the room, "not if I have anything to say about it."

Curious as to how she is going to pull this off, Keller follows her back into the room, surprised by how John relaxes as he sees her.

Heading straight for the side of the bed, "John, if you promise to stay here until Jen says you can go, she'll take out the catheter." and seeing the hope flood his face and the anger on Keller's, "right Jen?"

"Okay, fine. But only if you promise to be good and do what I tell you."

"I promise." he says, smiling.

"Good, I'll go get Dr. Newman and we'll remove the catheter and EKG, but the IV stays." Keller says, as she walks out of the room.

Watching Keller leave, "Lexi?"

"Mmm?" she asks, sitting down and looking at him, "what's up? You feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But, um, when I get out of here, we need to celebrate your birthday."

"John, you need to get better and I promise we will."

He reaches for her hand and takes it in his, wincing a little as he does so, as his chest is still sore.

A few minutes later she turns around as Keller and Doctor Newman walk in, but not before letting go of his hand and standing up, "okay, I'll just wait outside." and walking out of the room, she waits until she hears Keller call her back into the room.

As she is walking in Keller puts a hand out to stop her from going any further, "all right, I'm going to leave him in your hands for now. See if you can get him up. I'll be back in an hour."

Patting her hand, "I'll see what I can do." and heading over to John, who is already sitting on the edge of the bed, "I see someone's eager to get up." she says, smiling at him and coming to stand next to him, she places her right hand around his waist and he drapes his left arm around her shoulders.

Smiling down at her, "I just hate being kept in bed, when I'm the only one in it."

"Well, if you listen to Jen, then you won't be in the bed alone." she says, and looking up at him she realizes he is breathing a little harder then normal, "you doin okay?"

"Yeah." he answers, gripping her shoulder a little tighter.

"We'll take it nice and slow, I'm in no hurry."

They manage to walk a couple of steps from the bed, "me neither." he says, with a look of concentration on his face.

She helps him walk around the room for about fifteen minutes and feeling his body start to tire, "I think that's enough for now."

"I can keep going." he says, but as the words leave his mouth, the room starts to go sideways and he nearly topples over.

"Whoa, John." she says and she quickly reaches her left hand around to stop him from falling forward.

"Ugh, this sucks." he huffs, as she helps him get back onto the bed and covers him with the blankets again.

"Don't feel bad." she says, reattaching the IV to him, turning the pump back on and sitting down on the bed next to him, "you're body's been through the ringer. It's gonna take some time for your strength to return."

"How long?"

"I don't know. But I have a feeling that it won't be that long, knowing you."

He smiles back and feeling her rubbing his arm, he whispers to her, "I'm glad I'm not hooked up to the monitor any more."

"Yeah, I can understand that." she whispers back, watching his eyes slide shut and his breathing even out. She stays with him while he sleeps, only leaving when Keller comes in for her third check and mentions that she should probably go get some food.

xxxx

"John."

Opening his eyes, he blinks them a couple of times to clear them and turning his head to his right, "hi Teyla."

"How are you?" she asks, sitting down in one of the chairs next to the bed.

"Better." he says, propping himself up in the bed, "how are you?"

She looks at him, surprise etched across her face, "me? I am not the one recovering from fighting a Replicator."

"Teyla, I'm fine." and gesturing at her stomach, "but I'm not..."

Understanding what he is trying to say, "okay. I'm doing okay."

"Good." he says smiling and looking around the room, "so, have you seen Lexi?"

"Yes. I saw her in the mess with Colonel Carter, why?"

"Oh, no reason."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. So what have I missed?"

Raising an eyebrow at him, she catches him up on what is going on around the city and about twenty minutes later, Ronon and McKay show up.

"Hey Sheppard, I hear that Jennifer, gave you some freedom today."

"Yeah, McKay, she let me out of bed."

The four teammates sit around talking and catching up, until Keller, walks in, "all right you four, time for bed."

"Yes, mom." McKay says as he, Teyla, and Ronon all get up to go.

"We'll see you tomorrow, buddy." Ronon says.

"Good night, John, I'm glad you are well." Teyla says, as she nods to Keller and follows the men out of the room.

"Night guys."

Watching him and checking him over, "how are you doing?" Keller asks.

Focusing on her, grimacing as she checks the incision site on his chest, "I'm...doing great."

"But?" she asks, pulling his gown back up and reaching for the thermometer.

"But, I guess I must have dozed off."

Sticking it in his ear, "you did and I'm not surprised that you did. Lexi said that you walked around for fifteen minutes."

"When will I be cleared for duty?"

She sighs as she takes the thermometer out of his ear, placing it down on the tray and moving over to the computer to type up her notes, "I'm going to keep you here for a couple more days and then we'll go from there."

Sighing as well, "but."

Hitting save on the computer and looking at him, "Colonel, your temp is still higher than I'd like and I don't care if you think that you're feeling better, that rib needs time to heal. So humor me okay?"

Frowning, "fine."

Heading for the door, "good. Now why don't you get some more sleep and I'll come and check on you in the morning. If you need anything tonight, Marie is on."

Smiling, "thanks." and watching her leave, he waits until he is sure that she is out of sight. Sitting up, he swings his legs over the side of the bed, pulling out the IV as well. That done, he slowly pushes himself into a standing position and when the room doesn't spin he smiles, "maybe I'll be able to get there after all." he whispers to himself under his breath, as he walks slowly to the door.

Reaching the door and looking out into the infirmary he is happy to see that it is relatively empty. Sneaking over to the closest storage cabinet, he rummages through it until he finds a pair of scrubs. Grabbing them, he quietly walks back to his room and leaning against the bed, he slowly pulls the gown over his head, whistling through his teeth, as a jolt of pain shoots through his chest from the movement.

Dressed in the scrubs, he shuffles to the door again, pushing the exhaustion that is sapping his strength to the back of his mind. Bracing himself against a gurney that is right outside of his room, he grimaces as another wave of pain washes over him. Gritting his teeth to ride it out, he pushes himself off of the side of the gurney and making sure that there is no one in the vicinity, he walks out of the infirmary. It takes him a good forty minutes to make it to Lexi's quarters, thanking his lucky stars that it is late enough that only the grave yard crew is on, which means that only a few people are up and about.

Reaching them, he swipes his hand over the door panel to ring the bell, leaning against the doorframe to keep himself up right, "Lexi."

xxxx

Lexi was sitting up in bed reading a book. However, she lifts her head up at sound of the door chime and John's voice on the other side of the door. Bolting out of the bed and opening it, she is shocked to see him standing there, nearly about to pass out.

Grabbing him by the waist and helping him over to the bed, "John, what in g-d's name were you thinking? You promised Jen you wouldn't do this."

Lying down on her bed, letting out a sigh of relief as he sinks into the mattress, "I needed to see you."

Getting into the bed next to him and holding him under the blankets, to try and stop him from shivering, "and you couldn't wait till tomorrow morning?"

"No."

She feels him fall asleep and smiles as he is no longer shivering, "oh, John, what am I going to do with you?" she asks him, even though she knows he isn't going to answer her and that's when she hears her name being called over the intercom system in her room. Shifting slightly, so as not to move him too much and grabbing her radio, slipping it in her ear, "this is Dr. Carter, go ahead."

"Lexi, it's Evan, we're on a secure line. Do you have the Colonel?"

She'd been waiting for this call, knowing that his absence from the infirmary would not go unnoticed for long, "Evan, is anyone else with you right now?"

"Yeah, I've got Ronon with me and the rest of the base is also looking for him. I just figured he'd be with you."

"Yeah, I've got him."

"Is there any way you can get him back to the infirmary?"

Looking down at him asleep in her arms, "um, no. He's asleep. How close are the two of you to my quarters?"

"We should be there in a couple. How do you want to play this?"

Understanding what he is referring to, "well is there any way you can get away from him?"

"Ah, no, being that we're almost to you now and he's heard me talking to you."

"Good point. Oh, well. We'll figure something out when you get here."

"Okay, cause we're here." he says, and as the radio link closes the doors to her quarters open to reveal him and Ronon standing there.

Putting a finger up to her lips to stop the words that she knows are about to come out of Ronon's mouth by looking at him, "Ronon, shh."

The two men step into the room and the doors close behind them. As they shut completely she gently gets out of the bed and comes over to the two of them, as Lorne asks "okay Lexi, how do you want us to get him back? Keller is having a cow."

Not having missed the huge smile on Ronon's face, "Ronon, what is it?"

"Oh, nothing..."

"Come on, what?"

"It's just that I won the bet."

Glaring at him, "what bet is that?"

"Um, well, Teyla, McKay and I had a bet about the two of you getting together. And I just won it."

"I'm gonna kill all of you!"

They all turn to see John sitting up and moving his feet over the side of the bed, running his hands over his face and through his hair, "Chewy, you can't say anything to either of them."

Lexi laughs at the reference to Star Wars and walks over to the bed to sit next to him not surprised as Ronon complains, "but Sheppard, come on."

"No! You're not to tell anyone, you got it?" and seeing Ronon nod, "okay, help me back to the infirmary." and turning to face Lexi, "will you be stopping by tomorrow?"

"Of course John." she says, with a warm smile.

He stands up with her help and reaching Ronon and Lorne, who each drape one of his arms over their shoulders, they head out for the infirmary.

She watches them go and climbing back into bed she goes to sleep. The next couple of days pass with Keller keeping John in the infirmary longer than is necessary. On the fourth day of his "punishment" as his team calls it, Carter steps in and convinces her to release him to his quarters. She agrees, but to really get back at him, she doesn't clear him for a total of six weeks.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chap. 18:

* * *

**

Carter is sitting in her office. It is early morning and she can just see the beginning rays of light coming in through the windows in the Control room. Not being able to sleep, she figured that she would come down to her office to get some work done. Just as she finishes making updates to the mission reports, she adds a side note reporting that at the current time John, McKay and the rest of the personnel on the Midway station are considered MIA.

Looking up from her tablet, at the sound of people walking towards her office, she sees Lexi and Lorne standing in her doorway, "Lexi. Major, what can I do for you?" she asks, waiving her hand in the direction of the chairs in front of her desk.

Taking a seat, "Sam, has there been any word?"

"Yes Lexi. I've spoken with Colonel Caldwell. Apparently, the SGC is safe and so are Teal'c and Ronon."

"That's good news. But what about Midway?" Lorne asks.

Sighing and fixing them with a frown, "Midway is still offline. There's been no communication from them for the past forty-eight hours. Caldwell has Ronon on board the Daedalus and they're stopping on the way to check on the situation."

"So we wait, then?"

"Yeah, Lexi, we wait." she says with a sad smile and catching the look that Lorne is fixing Lexi with, "was there something else?"

"Lexi, you need to tell her."

"But, Evan, it's got nothing to do with."

"Lexi, you need to."

"She needs to tell me what, Major?"

"Lexi has been seeing Colonel Sheppard."

"Evan!" Lexi shouts, causing the few people in the Control room to stop what they are doing and look towards the office.

Realizing this, Carter stands up and walks over to close the door. On her way back, "Lexi, how long have you been seeing him?" she asks, leaning against her desk.

Furious with Lorne and not looking at either of them, but suddenly finding the wall behind Carter very interesting, "um."

"How long?" Carter asks again.

"Since I arrived on base."

"I take it that it's serious?"

"Yeah, Sam."

"Evan, what do you think?"

"Colonel, I have to be honest with you. I'm not really the one to be asking. We don't really talk about that kind of stuff."

"Okay, you're dismissed. I'll keep you in the loop as soon as I hear anything."

He gets up and shooting Lexi an apologetic look and a nod at Carter he walks out of the office and heads off to the gym.

Watching him walk out of the office and turning to face her aunt, "Sam, I know that I told you I wasn't going to let anything happen between the two of us, but."

"But, he's John Sheppard. Yeah, Lexi, I understand. It's just." she sighs and runs her hands over her face.

Seeing how tired and upset she is, "Sam, I'm sorry. I should've told you sooner."

Looking at her and coming to sit next to her in the chair that Lorne had just vacated, "I'm just hurt by it. I thought we told each other everything."

"I know and usually I would've told you. But, I guess...I guess I was afraid that you would say don't go there and well."

"You're right, I probably would've said don't go there. But if you remember, all I did was warn you to be careful. I can't tell you who to see and not see."

"I remember." and as her emotions get the better of her, she buries her face in her hands.

"Lexi..."

Lifting her head up, tears streaking down her face, "Sam, what happens if they don't come back? I mean, I know that there's always a chance of that happening, but..." standing up and balling her hands up into fists at her side, "ugh, I really want to scream or hit something right now!"

Carter can't help it and she starts laughing. Lexi is taken off guard by it at first and then she too starts to laugh.

"Lexi, it's gonna be okay." Carter says through her laughter.

"How do you know that?"

"When you've been doing this as long as I have, you always have to believe that things will work out for the best." and seeing the fear in Lexi's eyes, "if John and Rodney are anything like my team, they'll be okay."

Thinking about it and smiling, "you know what? You're right. Hell Daniel has come back from the dead, what like hundred times already? And you've been a host to a Tok'ra and Jack has been an ancient twice and oh man I could go on and on and on."

"Well first off, it's only twice that Daniel has come back from the dead. But yeah, we've certainly had our fair share of close calls. So you see, nothing to worry about." and standing up and gesturing towards the door, "you feel like having breakfast? I could sure go for some coffee."

Falling into step with her, "sure, coffee would be good." she says, as she gets up and they head for the mess. A week and a half later, Lexi is glad that the news they receive from the Daedalus is good news, happy that Carter had been right.

xxxx

Slowly coming back to himself, John realizes that he is in fact still alive, _and how did I pull that one off?_ Taking stock of himself, he opens his eyes just in time to see Doctor Lee, Kavanagh and the two marines climbing through the hatch leading to the Jumper dock. Forcing himself to make some sort of noise, he grimaces as he realizes the only noise he will be able to make is to amplify his breathing. Hoping against hope that someone will hear it, he switches on the audio in the suit, and breathes out. It takes a second, but he sees McKay stop just before entering the hatch and he smiles to himself as he sees McKay making his way towards him.

Pure and utter relief courses through him as McKay turns on the suits' inner light and wincing as the light makes his head start to pound even more, he doesn't really hear McKay speaking. Shifting around a little and cutting off the rant that he knows McKay is about to go off on, "get me out of here."

Staring at him, "yeah." and he reaches for the helmet to start disconnecting it. As he pulls it off, "I thought you were dead."

Glaring at him, "Rodney, we really don't have time to talk. Like I said, get me out of this thing."

Shaking his head and refocusing on getting him out of the suit, they manage to do so in just under three minutes. McKay doesn't miss how unsteady John is as he climbs into the hatch, but he keeps his mouth shut, as he knows they're basically out of time and they can hear Kavanagh's warning, "self destruct's about to blow. Twenty seconds!"

John reaches the drop down into the Jumper just as Kavanagh finishes speaking and motions for McKay to go in ahead of him. He drops down after McKay, grimacing as the impact of hitting the Jumper floor ratchets up the pain that is coursing through his body and realizing that Doctor Lee just asked him something, "later. We're leaving."

Pulling himself up straight, he runs forward to the pilot's seat and sitting down in it, "sit down!" he shouts at everyone as he activates the controls and pilots the Jumper away from the station just a few seconds before it blows up.

Speeding away from the station, the Jumper gets tossed around a little in the aftershock but it is not anything that the shields can't handle. Setting the Jumper to hover, he slowly turns around in his seat, meeting the concerned eyes of McKay. As his eyes scan the rest of the men, it hits him that the Jumper and everything in it seems to be tilting sideways.

It takes a second for his brain to supply the fact that it's not the Jumper that is tilting sideways, but him and as he feels two sets of hands guiding him gently to the floor, McKay's scared shout of "Sheppard!" follows him into unconsciousness.

xxxx

The Jumper is sitting in the void between the Milky Way and the Pegasus galaxies. Inside of it, the group of survivors from the Midway station are having an argument, about some inane comment that Kavanagh just made. They have been stuck together in the Jumper for about twenty-four hours.

"All I'm saying is..."

"Yes. You were stupid to even consider turning off the alarm!" McKay yells at him and looking over at John, who is trying his hardest to sleep on one of the benches, but is now glaring at him, "sorry, sorry. It's his fault. If he hadn't."

Sitting up, pulling off the oxygen mask and glaring at everyone in the Jumper, his eyes coming to land on McKay, "Rodney, just don't." and catching the concerned looks being thrown his way, he stands up, only to have the Jumper go sideways, again.

"Colonel you really should just stay seated." Doctor Lee says, concern etched across his forehead, as McKay and Sergeant Campbell guide John into a sitting position again.

"I'm fine. Really. Just stood up too fast." and to prove his point he stands again and pushing his way through everyone, he heads for the cockpit quickly sealing the hatch between the two compartments.

Sitting down in the pilot's seat, he turns it to face the hatch and props his feet up on the chair behind it. Closing his eyes and resting his head against the headrest the memory of coming to in the Jumper with everyone staring at him, worry written across their faces, plays in his head. Opening his eyes, starring at the hatch, _g-d damn it! Somebody shoot me now._ Closing his eyes again, as his head seems to want to fall off, he drifts off into a restless doze.

The next thing he is aware of is someone shifting around in the compartment next to him. Cracking his eyes open, he sees McKay sitting in the co-pilots seat and realizing that the lights in the compartment are lower than they were, "McKay?"

Startling at his voice, stopping what he is doing and turning in his seat to look at him, "oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. How're you feeling?"

Sitting up straight in the chair, inwardly groaning as it sends his vision spinning, but gritting his teeth to ride out the wave of nausea, "I'm good." he grits out.

Eyeing him critically and not missing the color leaving his face, "uh huh. I'll go with that one." McKay says, refocusing on his laptop, which is perched on the console in front of him.

"Rodney, I'm really okay. Just sore."

Turning to face him and pointing at the closed hatch, "you can drop the macho pilot act here, the door is closed and it's just you and me. I know you're not 'okay.' For Christ's sake, you're white as a ghost and look as if you're gonna be sick at any moment. Which would just be par for the course right about now. So please don't tell me you're good, fine or okay."

Wincing at the jackhammer that has ratcheted up another level in his head from the loudness of McKay's voice, "fine. I'm not good. But there really isn't anything to be done about it, so..." he trails off seeing the look of guilt plastered across McKay's face, "you did the right thing back there."

Not meeting his gaze, "I vented the atmosphere and almost killed you."

Sighing as the nausea is inching its way past annoying and pinching the bridge of his nose, "I told you to do it. So don't blame yourself. Besides it needed to be done. We would've never been able to stop all those wraith without doing it."

Looking over at him, "you know, Sergeant Campbell was hoping to get to check you over, he seems to think he's some sort of doctor."

Turning his head ever so slightly, "well he is. He's a medic. But I don't think he'll be able to do anything for me, so might as well not..."

Starting to get angry again, "would you just give it up already? We have a full med kit back there. The least he can do is give you something stronger than Tylenol." and seeing the glare that John is throwing at him, "look, I know you hate being drugged, but it's not like we're going anywhere for a while."

Sighing, "no you're right. But if you don't mind, I'd like to try and go back to sleep instead."

Huffing, but not missing the wince as John shifts again in the chair, "fine. I'll be quiet."

Smiling and shifting again to try and get comfortable, but giving up and just slouching in the chair as much as his aching joints will let him, "good. Wake me in five hours."

Focusing on his tablet again, "why? You expecting something to happen?" he asks, and quickly looking over at John he frowns to himself as he sees that he is already out cold. Getting up from the chair, he swipes himself into the rear compartment quickly shutting the hatch behind him.

Catching Sergeant Campbell's eye, "Sergeant, you can go up there now, he's out cold."

Standing up and slinging the med bag over his shoulder, "what are his symptoms, sir?"

Taking a seat on the bench, "I'd say nausea, muscle aches, especially his right shoulder and one hell of a headache."

Hesitating at the bulkhead door, "you really think we should drug him?"

Sighing, "yes I do. I know he'll be pissed that we did, but he needs it. Even if he won't admit it."

Turning to swipe his way into the front part of the Jumper, "okay sir." and walking into the front compartment, he heads directly for John, as the bulk head door closes behind him. Taking out the LSD from the med kit, he scans John whistling softly to himself as John's vitals come up.

Setting the med bag down on the floor of the Jumper, he goes about inserting an IV into John's hand, frowning, as John doesn't stir at the needle stick. Satisfied that the IV is in, he goes about covering him with a blanket, recovering his face with the oxygen mask and manually checking his vitals. Half an hour later, he walks back into the rear compartment, "well, he'll be out a while, I gave him morphine and put him back on the oxygen."

"Will he be okay?" Doctor Lee asks.

Sitting down next to Lieutenant Mills and looking at everyone, "yeah. He's suffering from decompression sickness, but..."

"I knew I shouldn't have vented the atmosphere." McKay interrupts him.

"Sir, the Colonel ordered you to and you did the right thing by following those orders. He's gonna be fine. The morphine will keep him pain free and pretty much keep him loopy enough that he'll sleep for a while, which is really good for him."

Nodding, "great Sergeant. Thanks. I guess we should all try and get some sleep too." McKay says.

Everyone nods their agreement and gets as comfortable as they can. They all sleep through the night, except for McKay who waking up in a cold sweat, gets up to go check on John. Satisfied that he is okay, he takes up the co-pilots seat and falls back to sleep.

The following nine days pass with Sergeant Campbell keeping John drugged enough that he sleeps through most of it, except for eating or relieving himself. On the tenth day of their waiting to be rescued, John wakes up to the sounds of someone typing on a laptop next to him.

Opening his eyes, he looks around for a second trying to get his bearings. Realizing that he's still in the Jumper, "shit." he says out loud.

"Do you have to or are you just stating the obvious in regards to our current situation." McKay asks, not looking at him.

Turning his head on the head rest, looking at McKay and seeing the smirk, "I was commenting on our situation." and looking down at himself, he sees the blanket and the band aid on the back of his hand, "how long have I been out?"

Looking at him, "well let's see." he says, looking down at his watch, "it's been ten days since Midway blew up."

Sitting up straight and looking around worriedly, "wait what?"

Turning in his chair to look at him directly, "don't worry. Campbell took you off the pain meds yesterday.

Slumping against the chair again and scrubbing his hands over his face, realizing that he's clean shaven, "so how have I been eating and doing, ah other things?"

"Well, he's been weaning you off of them for the past four and well before that."

Realizing he doesn't want to know any more, "yeah, got it thanks. So ah, whatcha you doing?" he asks, pointing at the laptop, trying to change the subject.

Getting the hint, "ah yes. I'm just doing some calculations. It was getting a little cramped back there and I needed some space."

Rubbing his neck, stretching out his shoulders and repositioning himself in the chair again so that his feet are on the one behind him, "you got any music on there?"

Smiling and handing him the laptop and a pair of headphones, "yeah. I'm gonna head back in there, you sleep. Campbell says you're gonna be a little drowsy for a while."

Taking the headphones and slipping them on, "tell me about it." he says, as he hits the play button on the lap top and watching McKay closing the bulk head door, he smiles his thanks at him, before it closes completely and he's alone in the quiet of the cock pit. Listening to the music, he feels his eyes start to drift shut and the last thing he remembers is an image of Lexi, before he's out cold again.

xxxx

About six hours later, Kavanagh is sitting with his back against the door to the rear compartment. Doctor Lee is sitting to his right and they are using a metal case as a table to play cards on. A little further up in the rear compartment, Sergeant Campbell and Lieutenant Mills are sitting on the benches and McKay is sitting closest to the door leading to the forward compartment on the floor.

"No way! You actually liked it?" Doctor Lee asks Kavanagh.

"It's his finest film."

Doctor Lee looks around at the others and holding out his hands in disbelief, "_Pearl Harbor_!"

"Yeah, go ahead and mock it. Everybody does, but that film will endure. It's got weight."

"Yeah, which is why it plummeted at the box office!"

"Two hundred million dollars domestic; that's not plummeting. I beg to differ."

McKay has been sitting on the floor listening to the two of them with his arms folded across his chest and a total look of irritation on his face, finally he can't take it anymore, "enough, already! We've been stuck here for G-d knows how long and you haven't shut up, either of you! You just keep talking and talking and..."

He keeps going, his voice getting higher with each angry syllable and he would've kept going but something jolts the Jumper and he asks "what was that?"

"Something just hit us."

As the rear door to the Jumper starts to lower, Kavanagh nearly falls out of it. They all scramble to their feet, as the door finally touches down to reveal Ronon standing with two marines on either side of him.

Seeing this, the only word that Kavanagh can come up with is, "oh!"

Doctor Lee has a better go of it and as Ronon starts walking into the Jumper, "wh..where are we?"

Reaching where Doctor Lee is standing, "Daedalus 302 bay. We saw you, we scooped you up; we're heading back to Atlantis."

As he finishes with his explanation, Kavanagh says, "thank g-d" and Ronon roughly pushes him out of the way and makes his way to where McKay is standing by the bulkhead door.

As he reaches him, McKay looks at him and says, "Midway was destroyed."

"Yeah, we saw. Where's Sheppard?"

McKay turns to the closed door and opens it. Pointing at John, who is slumped in the pilot seat with his feet up on the chair behind it, with headphones on and his eyes closed, "he lasted about a day, sealed himself in there." and he walks out of the jumper.

Ronon walks into the forward compartment and looking down at John with a smile, "no wonder he didn't hear the radio call." and reaching out, he tickles John on the side of the face. It takes a couple more tries and just as he starts to get a little worried, he gives it one more try, laughing as John finally startles awake and stares at him, "thank G-d! I almost shot myself with a stunner."

"Yeah, I understand."

Sitting up straight, taking the headphones off and looking around, "where are we?"

"Daedalus 302 bay."

"What's the status of SGC?"

"Secure. Teal'c and I took care of the Wraith."

"I figured you would."

Gesturing to the exit of the Jumper, "let's get the hell out of here."

Standing up, "yeah."

Walking out of the Jumper, John grabs his vest and falls into step with Ronon.

As they reach the back of the Jumper, "oh, and I passed my interview at the IOA."

Looking over at him, "really?"

"Yeah, they said they like me."

"Well, what's not to like?"

Walking out of the 302 bay, they head for the bridge. Keeping an eye on John, Ronon doesn't miss how unsteady he is on his feet, but instead of commenting on it, "you know buddy, you need a shower." he says, as they reach the bridge.

"Thanks, I know. But we need to let Colonel Carter know that Midway was destroyed and…" he trails off as they enter the bridge and Colonel Caldwell spots them.

"Colonel, good to see that you survived. You had us all very worried."

"Ah, thanks Colonel." John says uncomfortably and seeing that they are in hyperspace, "have you contacted Atlantis and the SGC to let them know?"

"Yes. Everyone is relieved that you're all okay. But they're understandably upset about losing Midway."

Looking between him and Ronon, "couldn't be helped."

Nodding in understanding, "all right then. Why don't you and Ronon head to your quarters. I'm sure you want a shower and a hot meal. We'll be arriving in Atlantis in a week and a half."

Sharing a look with Ronon, "yeah, that sounds good. Thanks, Sir." and turning, he and Ronon head off the bridge.

On their way to their quarters, John takes a detour to the infirmary to grab some Tylenol.

"Ah Colonel, did you come for your after mission check?" Doctor Peters, the Daedalus's onboard doctor asks as John and Ronon enter the infirmary.

"Not really, doc. I was hoping to get some Tylenol."

"Well, I can help you with that. But we should really get the check out of the way."

Rolling his eyes, "oh fine. But can you make it quick?" and looking at Ronon, "hey buddy, you don't have to wait around."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Okay. I'll see you later." Ronon says, as he heads out for his quarters.

John hops up onto the closest gurney and lets the doctor do his thing. An hour later, he is still sitting on the gurney, arms crossed, head starting to pound and fuming, as Doctor Peters has yet to give him the all clear, although he had at least been kind enough to let John have a sandwich.

Just as he's about to get up to leave, he sees Doctor Peters walking over to him, "so doc, can I get out of here?"

Coming up to the side of the gurney, frowning, "I'm sorry Colonel. But, I have a couple of questions first?"

Matching his frown, "but doc."

"Look, I know that you probably want a shower. But the quicker you answer my questions the sooner I'll let you out of here. Okay?"

Resting his head back against the pillow, wincing as his headache spikes, "fine. Question one."

Not missing the wince, but not mentioning it, "all right. Question one. Do you remember what happened on the Jumper?"

Wishing that they were back on Atlantis, as he'd be able to dim the lights with a thought, "um. I remember wanting to stun myself." and thinking about it a little more, "that's it. That okay?"

Making a note on the chart he has with him, "yes. I'm not surprised that you don't remember most of it. Pain meds will do that to you. Now, question two. How do you feel now?"

Sighing and closing his eyes, figuring that if he tells the truth, the doc will leave him alone, "well, except for a headache and want of a shower, I feel fine."

Nodding and taking out a packet of pills from his pocket, "okay. Take these, they'll get rid of the headache."

Dry swallowing the pills, "so can I get out of here now?"

Making some final notes on the chart, "yes. But you are to head straight to your quarters." and watching him critically as he slides off the bed, "once you've showered, I want you in bed for the rest of the day. Those pills should make you pretty drowsy."

Reaching the exit and looking over his shoulder, "anything else doc?"

Coming to stand in front of him, "yes. I'll be stopping by to check on you in the morning."

Frowning, "I'm fine."

"Colonel, you were treated for decompression sickness on the Jumper and even though it happened ten days ago, your body is still recovering. Hence the headache that you have and the fact that you're still favoring your right shoulder."

Nodding, "okay, okay. I get it. See you in the morning." and Doctor Peters's "sleep well Colonel." follows him out of the door.

xxxx

Ten minutes later, John walks into his onboard quarters and already feeling the medication kicking in, he sighs as the door shuts behind him.

He slowly makes his way into the bathroom and peeling his clothing off he steps into the shower, a low moan escaping his lips as the hot water cascades over his sore muscles. Leaning his head against the shower wall, he closes his eyes and even though he doesn't mean to, he dozes off.

A couple of minutes later, he is startled awake as the water abruptly turns freezing cold. Losing his footing for a moment, he slips, but doesn't fall as he is able to steady himself before he does so. Shutting off the water quickly, he steps out of the shower stall and wraps the towel around himself as fast as he can, shivering the whole time.

Drying off, he makes his way out into his quarters smiling as he sees a fresh pair of boxers, sweat pants and t-shirt, laid out on his bed. Quickly changing into them, he returns to the bathroom, hanging the towel up and as he turns around, the thought of brushing his teeth flies out the window, as the room spins and he realizes that the bed is suddenly calling to him. He stumbles over to it and climbing into it, shutting off the bedside lamp, "now this is more like it." and pulling the blankets up to his chin, he's out like a light in seconds.

xxxx

Ten hours later, Doctor Peters walks around the corner of the hallway in which John's quarters are to find McKay and Ronon standing at John's door, trying to open it.

"What's this now?" he asks, as he comes to a stop next to them.

Staring at him, "Sheppard didn't show up for breakfast this morning. So Ronon and I came to check on him."

Smiling, "Dr. McKay, he wouldn't have been at breakfast this morning. The pills I gave him last night before he left the infirmary were pretty strong. He should be asleep for at least another couple of hours." and seeing the concern on their faces, "but I was just going to check on him if you would care to join me."

On their nods, he enters his medical override and he enters the darkened room, McKay and Ronon right on his heels. Walking quietly over to John's side, he smiles to himself as John is sprawled out on the bed, head buried in the pillow and completely dead to the world. As he takes out the LSD and scans him, "you see. He's fine."

"Are you sure?"

Looking up at them, whispering, "yes Ronon. The scan confirms it. He's just sleeping." and storing the LSD back in his pocket, "why don't you two come back in two of hours? I'll be checking on him again and he should be awake by then."

Sharing a look with Ronon and then nodding at him, "okay. Thank you Doctor. We'll see you then."

Returning the nod, Doctor Peters follows them out of John's quarters and returns to the infirmary. Ronon and McKay however, let themselves back into John's quarters and pulling up chairs on either side of the table in the room, McKay takes out a pack of cards and they begin playing a game to help pass the time until John wakes up.

An hour later, John wakes up, not surprised to find the two of them there. After relieving himself and washing his hands, he comes back out into the room heading for the bed again, "guys, I'm fine."

Watching him climb back into it, "you sure? Cause the on board doctor was here an hour ago and he said he'd be coming to check on you again in another hour." McKay asks.

Smiling at them, "he's just being a doc. So don't worry. Okay?" and seeing them nod, "now why don't you guys go find something to do. I'm sure watching me sleep is not a fun way to spend your time."

Getting up and returning the smile, "okay buddy. You want anything to eat?"

Shaking his head, "how bout I meet you guys in the mess after Dr. Peters has checked on me again?"

Walking out the door, "sounds good. We'll see you then." McKay says, over his shoulder.

Waving at them as the door closes, "see you guys." and as soon as the door is fully closed he gets comfortable again and head hitting his pillow he's out like a light.

An hour and a half later he walks into the onboard mess to find McKay and Ronon sitting at a table. Grabbing a sandwich and a water bottle, he takes a seat and joins in on the conversation. That night, he takes the pills that Doctor Peters left for him and sleeps the whole night. The rest of the trip back to Atlantis goes off without a hitch and after beaming down to the Gate room, and taking care of what needs to be taken care of, he heads directly for Lexi's office.

xxxx

Lexi is sitting in her office, trying her hardest to concentrate on reading through her email. She's been trying to keep herself occupied so that her mind won't wander to the fact that the Daedalus is scheduled to arrive from Earth tonight. Finally after reading the same line over again for the hundredth time, she shakes her head and gives up on reading all together. Instead, she stands up and walking over to one of the windows, she loses herself in staring at the ocean, her hand reaching for the dog tag around her neck.

Ten minutes later, she smiles to herself as the doors to her office open and without turning around she knows that it's John. Her smile only widens and relief courses through her as she finds herself being turned around and wrapped in his arms. Mentally locking the office doors, she clasps her arms around his neck and starts kissing him.

"I thought." she tries to say through the kisses.

"I know, me too." he answers back, as he leans down, kissing her neck.

She pulls away from him and holding him at arms length, she takes a good look at him. He smiles back at her and she pulls him into her and wraps her arms around him hugging him tight.

"John, you've got to stop scaring me like this." she says, with her head buried in his chest.

"I'm sorry Lexi. I don't do it on purpose." he says, and feeling her shaking he pulls away a little and with his right hand takes her chin and looks her in the eyes. Wiping away the tears that are on her cheek with his thumb, "please don't cry. I'm here and I'm okay."

She looks into his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, "it's just." she looks away from him, "John, I've said it before, I love you, and."

At this he smiles and leading her over to the couch, they sit down and with his left hand he reaches into his pocket and as he brings the small black box out of it, "Lexi, I can't promise that I won't get killed. That's the job and we both know it. But I do love you." and taking the ring out of the box and slipping it on her right ring finger, looking her in the eyes, "and I promise that as long as I can, I'll try my hardest to come back to you."

She looks down at the ring and back up at him with tears in her eyes again and a huge smile, "oh John, I love it, it's beautiful." and she leans in to kiss him and as she pulls away, "I'm gonna hold you to that promise."

Laughing, he leans in to kiss her again and pulling away, "now, the ring needs to be explained."

Raising an eyebrow at him, "okay."

Taking a deep breath, "my dad gave it to my mom as a promise ring, a year after they met. It was his mom's before and so on and it's been in the family for as long as I can remember. The tradition was that the oldest got the ring, but when I was back on Earth for my dad's funeral, Dave gave it to me and told me that mom wanted me to have it."

Looking at the ring, as he gives her the explanation, she notices that it is smooth platinum with two-triangle diamonds meeting at their points.

Looking up at him, "so why did she leave it to you?"

Frowning, "I don't know. I've been trying to figure that out, but can't come up with any reason."

"Well whatever the reason, I'm glad she did. So, what's the significance of the two diamonds in this formation?"

Smiling at her, "well, it's meant to show that two people can become one in love and that love is the strongest thing in the world. And I guess it's true, because my parents were only separated when my mom passed away."

Returning the smile, "it's perfect."

"There's a saying inscribed on the inside."

Taking off the ring and looking at the inside, she reads out loud, "love is true, love is kind, love is forever." and slipping the ring back on her finger, "so, do you have any plans for right now?"

Looking at his watch and back up at her, "what did you have in mind?"

Standing up and pulling him towards the door, "I've got an idea."

They leave her office separately and meet up in her quarters ten minutes later. She pulls him in the door mentally locking it behind him and undressing each other, he backs her up to the bed, leaving their clothes all over the floor on the way there. They fall onto to the bed, John on top and pulling her up off the bed, he leans in and kisses her from the neck down to her breasts and lowering her down gently, he feels her running her hands over his back, as she kisses her way up his chest to his lips. In an instant, she is on top of him. Finally exhausted from the energy spent, they lie there content in each other's arms, legs entwined and blankets twisted on top of them.

"I love you Lexi."

She props her head up on his chest and looks at him, her eyes twinkling in the moonlight that is coming in through the window, "I love you too." she says and she can feel him turning the ring on her right finger, "what are you doing?"

He stops, "it just occurred to me that if the diamonds are facing up, people are bound to notice."

Smiling at him, resting her head on his chest and sighing, "well, I think I need to warn you."

Tensing up, "what?"

She looks up at him again, "Sam knows. So our little secret is not so secret anymore."

Running a hand over his face and matching her sigh, "so, let's see who knows now?"

"Ronon, Teyla, Rodney, Evan and Sam. I think Jen, might suspect, but she hasn't said anything to me, has she spoken with you?"

"No. Well I guess you're right, not so secret anymore. At least the rumor mill hasn't gotten wind of it yet."

She laughs and as he looks at her, she starts laughing harder, burying her head in his chest.

He can't for the life of him understand what he has said that is so funny and sitting up and pulling her up with him, "Lexi, what did I say?"

"Oh...Joh...John, you have no idea do you?" she is able to get out through her laughter.

He looks at her and bringing his hands up and scrubbing at his face again, "did I miss something?" he asks, shooting her his most unnerved look.

Seeing the look she finally stops laughing and wiping the tears from her face, she decides to take pity on him, "let's see if I can get all of them?" and she proceeds to list the pairings, "you and Teyla, you and Jen, you and Sam, you and more than a few of the female marines, you and Larrin, you and Elizabeth and yes, even you and me."

Scowling at her, "is that all?"

"Oh come on John. It's all in good fun and to tell you the truth I'm not in the least surprised. There are probably even more pairings that have been rumored about, I just haven't heard them all."

"Great. Just great." he says, anger starting to radiate from him, "you know it's not like I go around sleeping with everyone."

She can feel him starting to shake, so wrapping her arms around his middle and pulling him back down onto the bed, "hey, don't feel bad. Do you have any idea how many of the women on this base come to me and tell me they wish you'd even give them the time of day?"

Turning his head on the pillow to look at her, "and you're okay with this?"

Leaning in to kiss him on the lips, pulling away "I'll be honest with you. When I first heard all the rumors, I was worried. I mean, I didn't think that I'd be okay with it. But, after all, I was warned to be careful by more than one person and I knew that if I got hurt, I wouldn't have anyone to blame but myself."

"Who warned you?"

"It's not important. What is important is that I know that you're a guy and you're gonna flirt, it's in your nature. But."

"But what?"

Turning the ring around with her thumb and showing it to him, "but you giving this to me, makes it all okay."

With that she climbs on top of him and they make love again. When they finish, they fall asleep in each other's arms. Lexi, actually falling asleep twenty minutes after John does, taking comfort in listening to him sleep and before she lets sleep take her, she props her head up on his chest and watches his face. Seeing it bunched up in pain, she can tell that he is having another nightmare, and whispering "oh, John, which one is it tonight," she lays her head down on his chest and falls asleep. A feeling in the pit of her stomach, knowing that at some point during the night he'll be tossing and turning.


	19. Chapter 19

**Chap. 19:

* * *

**

_John is back on Midway, trying to make his way to the Jumper without passing out from the lack of oxygen. His vision starting to blur and his chest screaming, he knows that all he needs to do is keep going. Then out of nowhere he feels the wraith scientist on him and they are flying through the air, landing with a thud and the wraith punches him in the face. After a struggle, he is able to get the wraith far enough away from him, so that he can reach for his side arm and drawing it out of the holster, he shoots the wraith dead. Lying there for a second, he tries to bring in air to his lungs and remembering that there is none to be had, he tries to stand up. Not being able to, he rolls over and tries to drag himself towards the Jumper._

He tosses in the bed, as the dream replays again and again. Finally after the tenth time through, he jolts awake, his heart hammering in his chest and his breathing coming in short shallow gasps. Not fully awake, his eyes dart around the room and it takes a second for his brain to supply the fact that he is in Lexi's quarters and that it is still night, as he can see the lights of Atlantis, through the shades on the windows.

Eyes coming to rest on the clock on the table he sees that it is 0300 and letting out a soft moan, he runs his hands over his face. Looking down on his right he sees Lexi sleeping peacefully next to him and with a sigh he throws the blankets off of himself and gets slowly gets out of the bed. Slipping into his boxers, which he picks up from the floor, he walks into the bathroom and up to the sink. Turning it on, he splashes some cold water over his face. Thinking to himself as he does so, _I thought I'd dealt with that on the way back here._ Straightening up and drying off his face with a towel, he jumps a little as he catches Lexi's reflection in the mirror.

Turning around to see her standing in the doorway, in his t-shirt, "I didn't mean to wake you." he says, leaning against the sink and crossing his arms over his chest.

Looking at him with concern, "it's okay. Did you have another nightmare?"

"I'm fine." and walking towards her, "let's go back to sleep."

She puts out a hand to stop him and looking him in the eyes, "John, you can talk to me, you know."

He looks away from her and with a pat on her hand, that she still has resting on his arm, "Lexi, I'm tired. Can we just go back to bed?"

She inwardly sighs and sliding her hand from his arm down into his hand and pulling him towards the bed, "yeah, but I'm here when you're ready."

They climb back into bed and she feels him snuggle next to her, draping his left arm over her waist. She feels his warm breath on the back of her neck, as it steadies out, signaling that he is asleep again and she too falls back to sleep. Content with the fact that in some small way she makes him feel safe enough to drop back to sleep quickly.

xxxx

The alarm goes off at 0630 and sitting up in the bed, Lexi reaches over and turns it off. Looking down at John, she smiles, but it quickly turns into a frown, as her eyes come to rest on his face. He's covered in a thin sheen of sweat and his face is bunched up in pain.

Gently brushing the back of her right hand across his cheek, "John...wake up." and when he doesn't stir, she starts to panic. Reaching for his wrist, she let's out a sigh of relief, as she feels the steady rhythm of his pulse beneath her fingers.

Turning so that she can place both her hands on his shoulders, she shakes him gently, "John, come on wake up, you're safe."

He feels himself being shaken and hears Lexi calling his name. But he isn't sure if he is still dreaming or if it's real. That is until he feels her kissing him on the lips and slowly opening his eyes, her worried face comes into focus.

"Are you okay?" she asks, and when he doesn't answer her right away, "John, answer me please."

Not knowing what he can tell her that will stop her from worrying, "I'm fine. Just a nightmare." he says, wincing, as every muscle in his body is aching as if he had been fed on by a wraith and then brought back to life over and over.

Looking at him skeptically, not missing the wince, she lets go of his hand shaking her head, "you look terrible and it took me a while to wake you, I'm worried."

Propping himself up on the pillows and cutting her off, "Lexi, I'm...I'm."

Crossing her legs in front of her and taking his hand in hers, "it would help if you talked about it. I know that you don't like to..." she trails off as she sees the glare he is giving her, but taking a deep breath, she presses on, "look, I know I'm being a pest but, it's not healthy to keep it bottled up. One day it's gonna come back and bite you in the ass."

"How do you know that? I've been okay, so far."

Sighing, "yeah, because like most people who have been trained as soldiers or spies, you're taught to compartmentalize your feelings and not to deal with them. You tuck them away nice and neat and only deal with them when you have to. But eventually."

Pulling her down into his arms and resting his chin on her head, "Lexi, I've come to terms with everything. I really have. I know that there are things that I can't control. Like having to kill Colonel Sumner and losing Ford, Carson, Elizabeth and everybody else, it wasn't my fault, It's just."

Sitting up and looking at him, "John, just by the fact that you're saying that you've lost everyone, proves to me that you haven't come to terms with it. You do blame yourself for it all, especially Colonel Sumner, Ford, Carson and Elizabeth. And, just so you know."

Pulling her back down into his arms again, "it was just a bad dream, nothing more."

Realizing that he is not going to give her anything else on the subject and sighing again she sinks deeper into his embrace and changing the subject, "so, you meeting Ronon at your quarters for your run?"

"Yeah. Actually, I should get going." he says, noticing the time on the clock.

As he releases her and gets out of the bed, heading for the bathroom, "you mind if I join you?"

Stopping just outside of it, turning to face her, "really?"

Climbing out of the bed and coming to stand in front of him, "yeah. I bet you I can out run you."

Pulling her into the bathroom, "is that a challenge?" he asks, as he lets go of her hand and reaches for his toothbrush.

Coming to stand right behind him, wrapping her arms around his stomach and kissing his back, "yeah...you gonna...except it?"

Spitting and washing out his mouth he puts his toothbrush in the holder and grabs his deodorant. Turning around from the sink, putting it on and allowing her to brush her teeth, "hell yes. But what do I get if I win?"

She turns to face him, tooth brush in her mouth, "oh, I'm sure we can figure something out. Why, what did you have in mind?" she says, as she turns back to the sink to wash out her mouth.

He looks at her, thinking for a second and handing her the deodorant, "well, if I win, then you've got to promise that you won't press me to talk with you about things."

Putting his deodorant back in the cabinet, taking hers out, putting it on and turning to face him, "I promise. But what do I get if I win?"

Walking out of the bathroom, talking over his shoulder as he reaches the dresser and pulls out work out clothes for both of them, "I'll come up with something."

Following him out of the bathroom, coming up to him and taking the clothes he's holding out for her, "okay then. Deal." and changing into her clothes, she waits for him to do the same and after they both take another pit stop in the bathroom they head out of her quarters, but not before she grabs two bottles of Gatorade and tossing one to him, "let's go. We don't want to keep Ronon waiting."

The door to her quarters open and she leaves first. John waits a couple of seconds and seeing her wave the all clear to him, he walks out and as the doors close behind him he falls into step beside her. It takes them a couple of minutes to reach his quarters and as they round the corner they see Ronon leaning against the wall waiting, his arms dangling at his sides a water bottle in his right hand.

Seeing them approaching, he pushes himself off the wall, "hey Lexi, are you joining us?" he asks with a smirk.

Coming to a stop right in front of him and winking at him, "yeah. He finally agreed to let me come."

Catching the wink, "what have you two got going on?"

"Nothing Sheppard." Ronon says, as the smirk widens to a grin, "you ready?"

"Yeah. John?"

Looking at them and sighing, "lead the way Chewy."

They head off to the transporter and as the doors open, Ronon and Lexi walk in and John gets in after them. The transporter lets them off on the East pier and stepping out of it, turning to face Lexi, "you sure you're gonna be able to keep up?" John asks with a smile.

Returning his smile, "oh, don't worry about me," and as she starts running, "I'll be fine."

Ronon shoots John a smile and is at Lexi's side in a matter of seconds. He stands there for a second and sighing again, he also starts to run. It takes him no time to reach the other two and just as he is about to draw even with them, Lexi sprints away faster than he had expected and as she looks over her shoulder in their direction, he catches the smile playing across her lips.

"You boys coming?"

Staring after her he shakes his head in disbelief and looking over at Ronon from the corner of his eye, catching the smirk playing across his lips, "hey buddy. What's got you so giddy?"

"Oh, Sheppard, you've got no idea what you've gotten yourself into." he says as he puts on his own burst of speed, leaving John to pump his legs even harder to catch up to them.

Catching up to them, he inwardly groans, _what did I get myself into?_ and drawing even with Lexi, "so, when were you going to tell me that you run like a track star?"

"You never asked." and gesturing at Ronon, "I've been running with him, for the past couple of months."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Sheppard. When you were recovering, I needed someone to run with and Lexi offered."

They reach the stairs that lead to one of the catwalks above the city and without hesitation Lexi is first to start the climb. John stops at the bottom of the stairs, to gulp down some Gatorade.

Ronon stops next to him and takes a swig of his water, drawing the bottle away from his mouth and popping the top shut, "you up for this?"

"Yeah, you?"

"I'm good to go."

"You slowpokes coming?" comes Lexi's voice, a couple of levels above them, "John, I'm winning."

"Oh no you're not!" and as the words leave his mouth he and Ronon start to run up the stairs.

They catch up with her, but she had stopped on the fourth level to wait for them and as she sees them coming, she resumes running. They level off with her and then John over takes her, only for Ronon to over take both of them. They alternate taking the lead up the twenty or so flights they have to climb to reach this particular catwalk and as they get to the last level, Lexi is in the lead and before either Ronon or John have time to catch their breath, she is sprinting across the cat walk.

As she comes to a stop at the other end, "I win." she says, around gulps of her Gatorade.

Ronon and John come to a stop in front of her, both leaning over with their hands on their knees trying to catch their breath. They straighten up and lean against the railing, gulping down the liquid they have in their hands greedily.

Lexi, stands there smiling at the two of them, "you know...I'd have thought that...would've been more difficult. But, it was actually rather easy."

"What did I tell you Sheppard?" and smiling at her, he reaches into the pocket of his pants and brings out a twenty, "you earned this." he says handing it over.

Seeing him hand her the money, "wait, did you two have a bet or something?"

"Yeah. Ronon bet me that you would beat me." she says, with a smile, stuffing the twenty into her pocket.

"I should've known better." Ronon says, leading the way down the stairs.

"Lexi, how?"

"How did I know I could beat you?"

"Um, yeah. I mean I know that I can't beat Ronon, except for that one time. But...you hardly look winded."

Heading to the transporter to take them to the mess and getting in, "John, I have to tell you the truth." and stepping out of the transporter, "I did cross training in school."

Smiling at her, as they join the line to get breakfast, "you continue to amaze me."

They walk out onto the balcony and see Teyla and McKay waving them over.

Reaching the table, Ronon grabs a chair from a table nearby and sits down on it at the head of the table, while Lexi sits down next to McKay.

As John sits down next to her, Teyla runs her eyes over him and shoots a look in Lexi's direction and then looks back at him, "John, you look horrible. What happened?"

"Lexi, decided to give us a lesson in humility." he says, around bites of food, gesturing with his fork at himself and Ronon.

"How did she do that?" McKay asks, taking a bite of his eggs.

"She beat us in a foot race." Ronon answers, around scarfing down his cereal.

Lexi blushes, as four pairs of eyes focus on her, two of them with eyebrows raised, "in all fairness, they almost beat me." she says, locking eyes with all of them.

"She beat you? I thought you were a runner?" McKay asks Ronon and then, "and how did she beat you, I thought you were Colonel runs a lot?"

Shooting daggers at him, "hey. Had I known that she used to run in school, I wouldn't have been so quick to agree to the race."

"Yeah, McKay. She's a great runner."

"Thank you, Ronon." Lexi says with a smile and looking down at her watch, "oh, I've got to go get ready, I've got an appointment in an hour." and standing up, taking her tray, "John, you coming? she asks, in a half whisper, even though Ronon, McKay and Teyla all know that the two of them are seeing each other, they are still keeping it from the population at large.

Standing up as well, "guys, I'll see you at the briefing." he says over his shoulder as he falls into step with her.

xxxx

As they walk back towards the crew quarters section Lexi notices how quiet John is and starting to worry, "John?"

Turning his head to look at her, "yeah?"

"I won't bother you anymore about you know. But, I'm here."

"But you won."

Smiling, "yeah, but I don't want to drive you away and I have a feeling that if I keep pestering you about it."

Walking into her quarters, the doors closing behind them he reaches for her and pulling her into him, "I'm not going anywhere. But thanks."

Wrapping her arms around his middle and resting her head on his shoulder, "you should get some sleep."

Pulling away from her and heading for the bathroom, "can't. Briefing in an hour and then McKay, Ronon and I are heading off world."

Following him into the bathroom and watching him turn on the shower, "will you be back tonight?"

Turning to face her and taking off his t-shirt pulling his feet out of his sneakers, "yeah, meet you back here for a movie?"

"Sounds good to me." she says, as she also starts to take off her workout clothes.

An hour later John is at the briefing and Lexi is in her office for her appointment. John, McKay and Ronon leave shortly after the briefing and surprisingly, the day passes in a blur for Lexi as for some unknown reason a bunch of people stop by to see her without appointments.

About fifteen hours later as she is walking back to her quarters, she lets out a tired sigh. It had been another crazy day and as she gets out of the transporter she smiles, remembering how annoyed John had sounded when he had radioed her to tell her that he had been way laid by a group of marines who needed to be reprimanded.


	20. Chapter 20

**Chap. 20:

* * *

**

By the time Lexi reaches her quarters the exhaustion that had started, as a minor ache behind her eyes is now a full-blown headache. Swiping her way into the room, not really paying attention she almost misses John passed out on her bed twisted under the blankets.

"So much for a movie." she says, under her breath with a sad smile and even though she is completely exhausted and would love nothing more than to drop down next to him, her mind won't shut off. So, heading into the bathroom and taking her pjays off of the hook she gets ready for bed.

Twenty minutes later, making her way over to the bed she climbs under the blankets and drawing them up to her neck letting out a long breath, "thank g-d tomorrow's a day off." and closing her eyes she mentally turns off the bedside lamp, as she is too tired to move. A couple of minutes later, just as she is about to drift off to sleep she startles a little as she feels John turning over draping his arm over her stomach and pulling her close to him.

Smiling to herself, she finally falls asleep.

xxxx

"Dr. Carter, come in please."

Silently groaning as she hears the call over the radio and praying that it is just a dream, she rolls over and tries to drop back off to sleep. But as "Lexi, this is Teyla. Please come in." comes over the radio, she forces open her eyes and reaching over to her bedside table she puts her radio in her ear, "Lexi...here."

"Um, I am sorry to wake you. But can you meet me in my quarters, I ah."

Throwing the blankets off of herself and swinging her legs over the edge, "I'll be right there."

Quickly standing up and slipping into her slippers, she walks over to the dresser and takes out Lorne's hoody. Shrugging into it she walks back over to the bed and leaning down, she kisses John on the forehead. As she straightens up, he stirs a little but doesn't wake and content that he will still be asleep when she gets back, she heads out.

Walking to Teyla's quarters, "something must really be wrong." she says, under her breath as she reaches Teyla's door and swipes the chime.

A few seconds later as the doors slide open, she frowns as she catches sight of the tears streaking down Teyla's face, "Teyla, what's wrong?"

"I do not know where to begin." she answers, stepping aside to let Lexi in and walking over to her bed, sitting down.

Following her into the room and sitting down next to her, "start with what you can remember." she says, placing a gentle hand on Teyla's.

Squeezing her hand as the nightmares that have been plaguing her for the past couple of days, play in her head.

"Teyla?"

Coming back to the present sighing and looking Lexi, "I have been having nightmares."

"About what?"

"My people, but mostly Kanaan."

Running her right hand through her hair, "ah and in the nightmares, what happens?"

"When the nightmares started I saw my people being mistreated. But this last one...well it..." she trails off and starts to cry again and through her tears, "I do not like this part of being pregnant."

Sliding closer to her and putting an arm around her shoulder, "I don't think it's so bad."

Turning her head, "really?"

"Yeah." and as a yawn comes out of now where, "oh, sorry. Anyway, if more people were more open with their feelings, my job would be a whole lot easier."

Seeing the yawn, her mothering instincts kick into overdrive, "oh, Lexi, I'm so sorry that I woke you. You must be tired."

"I'm fine. My main concern right now is you."

"Thank you. But I can come to see you when you are in your office."

Yawning again, but putting her best doctor look on, "no, it's fine. I'm here now." and taking a moment to consider something that has just occurred to her, "is it possible that the reason why you're having these nightmares are a by product of your wraith abilities? Do you think there is a chance that your son could be allowing you to link with Kanaan?"

Shrugging, "maybe. He did allow me to control the wraith ship with more ease than the last time. But, I haven't been able to connect with another human before."

Standing up and starting to pace, "well, it's just a thought. Maybe he has allowed this connection to form and this is why your dreams seem so vivid."

Watching her pacing back and forth and noticing that she is looking more tired than when she first arrived, "Lexi, I want to thank you."

Coming to an abrupt stop, "for what?"

Standing up and gesturing at the door, "for coming to me when I called."

Following her to the door, "Teyla, it's not a problem. You're sure you're going to be okay. I can stay a little longer if you want to talk some more."

Waiting for Lexi to reach the door, placing her hands on Lexi's shoulders and inclining her head, she feels Lexi do the same, "no my friend, you have helped me enough for tonight." and as they pull apart and she swipes the door control panel, "just go and get some sleep and I am sorry that I woke you."

Smiling tiredly, "thanks mom, I will and don't worry about it. If I wanted a boring life I wouldn't have joined the SGC." and as she walks out of the quarters, Teyla's "sleep well." echoes out after her.

xxxx

A few minutes later, walking through the doors into her quarters she is startled to see John sitting up in the bed head resting on his knees, "John, are you o..." she trails off as he raises his head up at the sound of her voice and she has to force herself to breathe. Finding her voice and putting a burst of speed into her step, she climbs into the bed next to him, "what's wrong?"

Slumping against the pillows, "nothing's wrong. I'm fine, just couldn't sleep."

Realizing that the lights are set low and she can't really see him she leans over him and manually raises the light level. As she sits back down, crossing her legs in front of her, she hears his intake of breath.

"Can you turn it off?" he asks, closing his eyes against the light.

Looking at him closely, she sees the sweat ringing his collar of his shirt and leaning closer she rests the back of her left hand on his forehead, "well no temp. Thankfully. But something is wrong."

Feeling her hand on his forehead he inwardly sighs as the coolness of it momentarily eases some of the pain. But realizing that she has yet to turn off the light, he mentally dims it, grimacing as it causes his head to scream and breathing through the pain, "I'm good, really."

Not missing the grimace or the fact that his eyes are still closed and his breathing is increasing in speed, "John Sheppard, you've got to be the most stubborn person I know!" she says, as she gets up and heads for her desk draw.

"Ah, Lexi not so loud, please." he pleads with her, opening his eyes and trying to get them to focus on her, except that she isn't there.

"Sorry." she says as she enters the combination for the safe and takes out the Excedrin Migraine. She walks over to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water, she heads back over to the bed and as she climbs onto it, "are you nauseous?"

Watching her spill out two pills he doesn't even have to consider her question, "mmm, hmm."

"So I take it the migraine woke you? Or did you have it before you fell asleep?" she asks him as she hands the water bottle and the Excedrin to him.

Swallowing the pills, handing the water bottle back to her and eyeing her skeptically not sure if he should really own up to the fact that he feels awful or if he should just let it pass, "um."

"Look, migraines aren't fun, but."

"It started when I was dealing with the marines." he confesses, figuring telling her the truth will keep her from yelling at him again.

Nodding her head in understanding, she gets under the blankets and slides on top of him. She sees his eyes tracking her as she brings her hands up to his head, spreading her fingers across his forehead and gently begins to massage it, "give it a couple of seconds and close your eyes."

Doing as he's told, he feels her pull him forward towards her, her fingers running down his neck and shoulders and then back again. Slowly the pain and nausea that had woken him up, start to ebb away, "ahh."

Chuckling as she eases him back against the pillows, she sees that his eyes are open a smile on his face, "feel better?"

Sighing, "yeah." and reaching up to push a piece of hair behind her ear, "so where were you? It's really late."

Leaning down, she kisses him and pulling away, "I was with Teyla."

"Is she okay?"

Lying down next to him, her head resting on his shoulder, "she's fine. She's been having nightmares and had a particularly bad one tonight."

"So, you made it all better and all's right with the world?"

Laughing, "yes John. At least as good as it can be."

Looking down at her and seeing that her eyes are starting to close, "bed?"

"That sounds wonderful." and burying her head down further on his shoulder, "is the alarm off?"

As they snuggle down under the blankets, Lexi on her right side pushed up against him and wrapped in his arms, "yeah, the alarm's off and Ronon and I aren't running until the afternoon, so."

"So, sleeping late and other things."

Kissing her neck, "yeah and other things."

They fall asleep within seconds as it is close to 0430 and sleep until around 1430. Waking up first Lexi smiles at the sight that meets her eyes. John is still fast asleep, lying on his stomach his head half off the pillow, one arm resting on her arm the other tucked up under the pillow.

She turns over onto her left side and runs her fingers through his hair a couple of times, until he opens his eyes and focuses them on her, "good morning or to be more precise good afternoon."

Scrunching his eyes closed and opening them again, "it's really that late?"

"Yeah." and as she continues to run her fingers through his hair, "how's the head?"

He takes a moment, "it's good. So you up for other stuff?"

Instead of responding, she rolls him over onto his back and is on top of him in seconds. Pushing up his t-shirt, she proceeds to kiss her way up to his lips, pulling the shirt off and throwing it on the floor. He runs his hands over her back and kisses her neck and lets her kiss him.

Half an hour later they are lying in each other's arms again, having finished making love, "you know John, I have a bad feeling about the Athosians."

He turns her to face him, "what do you mean?"

"I mean I don't think that Teyla's really come to terms with the fact that they're gone. I don't like that I think that but."

Sighing, "I know and I agree with you. But it's Teyla and until we get a shred of evidence to the contrary, I'm going to help her find them."

Smiling at him, "well that's because you're you and because it's Teyla."

Returning her smile, "what do you mean it's because it's me?"

"You think that you have to take care of everyone and even if you can't, you still try your hardest to do so." and seeing his raised eyebrows, "it's one of the things that attracted me to you. You put yourself last and everyone else first, even if it means you get hurt in the process."

Frowning, "not everyone."

Brushing her hand across his cheek, "you can't blame yourself for those." and pulling him into her arms, "you can't control everything."

"I can try."

"I know and I'm worried that one day."

He pulls away from her and taking her right hand and showing her the ring on her finger, "I promised."

"Yes, you did." she says, leaning over to kiss him again. Which leads to them making love again.

An hour later they head to the mess to grab some food, after which they meet up with Ronon for a run. After their run, Lexi meets up with Carter to have dinner and John, even though it is his day off, has to deal with McKay who needs him to activate a device that he found in one of the labs, that he couldn't activate. That night John sleeps in his own quarters, being that he, Ronon, McKay and Lorne's team are due to leave at the crack of dawn the next morning for a mission. Lexi is not happy with having to sleep by herself, but after he promises to come see her as soon as he gets back, she wishes him a safe journey.

Of course, had she known what they were all going to face over the next couple of months, she would have committed, John, Lorne, Carter, Keller, McKay and Ronon.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chap. 21:

* * *

**

Carter is standing in the infirmary intently listening to Keller.

"As you know, for some time now, we've been tracking what appears to be a new sickness in the Pegasus galaxy. We don't know exactly when or where it started, but so far we've encountered it on seven different planets."

"Make that eight. We just came back from 447. They've got it too."

Looking at John and McKay as they walk into the infirmary, "really? The same symptoms?"

"Mmm." McKay answers and looking around the room, locating an alcohol hand-rub dispenser, he squirts some into his hands, rubbing them together, "starts with respiratory difficulty, proceeds rapidly to fatal organ shutdown." and walking over to the others and seeing their expressions as he's still cleaning his hands, "oh, it's disinfectant."

"We just came back from the bio-screen, Rodney. We were wearing Hazmat the whole time, too." John says, looking at him.

"Yes, well, it's better safe than sorry."

Ignoring McKay for the moment, Carter turns to face Keller, "do we have any idea how it's spread?"

"Well, that's the strange part. Most of these planets have no regular contact with each other. But a few of them do have regular contact with other neighboring planets that have been completely unaffected."

"So far." John puts in.

Grimacing, "how bad is this gonna get?" Carter asks.

Returning the grimace, "if I had to make a projection, I'd base it on the evidence from M1R-992. There have been no new cases there for some time, which would seem to indicate the sickness has run its course."

"And?" Carter prompts.

Sighing, Keller finally tells them the real bad news, "it killed thirty percent of the population. If those numbers bear out on the rest of these planets, we're looking at a death toll of about two hundred thousand. That's assuming it doesn't spread any further."

John, McKay and Carter share a look of horror at the figures, "all right Jennifer please keep us up to date." Carter says.

"Of course Colonel."

With that Carter, John and McKay all leave her to her work. Carter heads back to her office, McKay to his and John heads to the ready room to brief the rest of the teams that are heading off world that day.

xxxx

That afternoon McKay finds Teyla sitting alone in the mess hall, her face still full of the memory of her nightmares. He walks up to her holding a small white box dressed with a blue ribbon and putting the box behind his back and holding it with both hands, he faces her. After a moment, she notices him and smiles up at him.

"Rodney. Has Doctor Keller made any progress with her investigation?"

"Unfortunately not, no, but she's still working on it."

Frowning at him standing uncomfortably with his hands behind his back, "what are you hiding?"

"I, um...well, I've been waiting for the right time to give this to you and what with everything that's been going on and all, I, uh...anyway, uh." he stammers, and as he brings the box out and hands it to her, "here you go."

Smiling and taking it from him, "you didn't have to do this, Rodney."

"Well, think of it as a kind of pre-baby present."

As she starts to untie the ribbon, he explains what it is, "back on Earth, there's this company that produces recordings specifically for the fetus. The thinking is that, by listening to the works of, say, a great composer while still in the womb, the baby will be born with a natural predisposition towards musical ability, or in this case science."

He watches her open the box and take out the mp3 player and at the bemused expression she fixes him with, "yeah. I recorded some of my reflections on some of my more ground-breaking accomplishments and theories, just a couple of hours worth."

Smiling at him again, "you should not have gone to so much trouble."

Waving off her comment, "ah, it was no trouble at all."

Watching her put the player back in the box, he notices that she is now deep in thought and that her smile has disappeared, so with a frown, "something wrong?

Looking around and gathering her thoughts for a moment, "uh...I was debating whether or not to tell anyone."

With an, "oh." he pulls up a chair and sits down, "tell anyone what?"

Looking at him, "I believe I had a vision last night."

"A vision?"

"I saw Kanaan, the father of my son. I believe that he was trying to send me a message that he's alive and that I must not abandon the search for him and the rest of my people."

Listening to her speak he struggles to hold a neutral expression on his face and as she finishes, "and this was while you were sleeping?"

"You think it was a dream." she asks

Stammering at the sad look on her face, "well, I...I."

Noticing that he is having trouble finding words, "I believe it was more than that. It did not feel like a dream." and seeing that he is still unsuccessfully trying to look supportive, "I knew you would doubt me. I should not have said anything."

"Hey, I've been cocooned inside an alien spacecraft. I've had another person living inside me. I've encountered not one, but two different versions of myself, so who am I to judge? If you say it was a vision, then I believe it was a vision."

She smiles at his reassurance and with a "thank you Rodney," she gets up to go. Leaving him to consider the conversation. Not sure what to make of it, he decides to run it past John, as soon as he can.

xxxx

By the time McKay finally finds John, it is already 2340 and John is on his way to the crew quarters.

"Hey, Sheppard, you got a sec?" he asks, as he side steps two scientists that are between them.

Coming to a stop and turning to face his teammate, "yeah, McKay. What's up?"

Finally reaching his side, "were you heading off to bed?"

Starting to walk again, "uh, not really."

Realizing what he means and walking with him, "oh, yeah. Well this will only take a couple of minutes."

Looking over at him, "no problem. What is it?"

"Well, I spoke with Teyla this afternoon, and well..." he trails off, feeling very uncomfortable now that he is actually telling John what she had told him.

"Spit it out McKay."

"She said she had a vision." he blurts out finally.

"A vision?"

Gaining speed, now that he's on a roll, "I seriously doubt it was a vision."

"She had'em before."

"She's had remote contact with the Wraith, never another human. Besides, those Athosians have been missing for, like, what, six months now? D'you really think they're still alive?"

"What do you want me to do, Rodney? Tell her to give up hope?"

"At some point, she may not have a choice."

Grimacing as McKay, walks off and then calling after him, "hey Rodney."

Stopping short and turning around to look at him, "what?"

Walking up to him and frowning, "I agree with you that she might not have a choice, but it's Teyla. So as long as she thinks there's a chance that they're still alive, we look. Okay?"

"Fine." McKay says and storms off to his lab, leaving John standing a few feet away from Lexi's quarters. He swipes the door panel and a few seconds later, Lexi is pulling him into the room, happy that he is there.

xxxx

That night Teyla dreams again of Kanaan. This time he shows her the pendant that she bought for him and after dropping it into her hand he tells her to, "come find me." The next morning with the dream still fresh in her mind, she decides to find John and tell him what happened.

She finds him in the gym, sparring with Lexi. As she watches the two of them she smiles to herself, remembering how not too long ago it was her and John sparring. Rubbing her now very large stomach and seeing Lexi take him down in a rush, she waddles up to the mat.

"John, you know better then to weave left when she comes at you like that."

Looking up at both women standing over him, "Teyla, I can't help it."

Reaching a hand down and helping him stand up, while not taking her eyes off of Teyla, "what's wrong?"

"What makes you think there is something wrong?" Teyla asks, not meeting Lexi or John's eyes.

Walking back over to the women with towels in his hands, "Teyla, don't even try to hide it from her. Besides you, there's no one else I know who can read people better."

Blushing and offering him a warm smile, as he hands her a towel, "thanks, John." and turning to face Teyla again, concern in her voice, "did you have another?"

Looking around the room nervously, "yes I did." and looking at John, "Kanaan told me that I should start looking on the planet where I bought the pendant I gave him. I'd like to go to the market that is there and look for any clues that might be there."

Looking from her to Lexi and back, throwing his and Lexi's towels over to the bench, "Teyla, I can't make any promises, but I'll talk with Colonel Carter and see if we can go."

Knowing that this is as good as she can hope for, and smiling, "thank you John. I will await the Colonel's decision." she says, turning and leaving the gym.

"Do you believe her?" he asks Lexi, as soon as Teyla is out of the room.

Getting into a ready stance again, "yeah, I do. Don't you?" and she doesn't wait for him to respond and tries to land a punch.

Taken aback by the sudden movement, but reacting quickly, he blocks her punch and coming back at her with a punch of his own, "I guess so. It's Teyla."

She ducks out of the way gracefully and with a large grin on her face, "well, if you need help convincing Sam."

As he also ducks out of the way of an impressive blow, he returns her smile realizing that she is offering to deal with her aunt on this one, but knowing that he should be the one to do so, "no I'll talk to her about it."

"Okay." she grits out, before he takes her down and she starts laughing at the look he is fixing her with, "ten for me and eight for you."

Helping her up, "what?" he asks.

Trying to catch her breath from laughing, "oh, well...that's...ten times…I've taken you down and...eight that you've taken me down."

Walking with her out of the gym, "oh, I see. It's a contest now?"

She can tell that she has hit a sore spot, "in all honesty, not really. Being that we actually should be even. But I'm counting me beating you on that run the other day and the other night." she says with a glint in her eye.

Catching the glint, the anger drains out of him, "well I guess that's fair."

She notices that the hallway they are walking in is empty and at that moment they are not in any lines of sight of any of the CCTV cameras, so she quickly grabs his hand and squeezes it to stop him, "John, I know that Sam will probably give the okay, but I still have a bad feeling about the whole Athosian situation, so be careful, okay. And not just you, make sure that all four of you are careful."

Squeezing her hand back and smiling at the fact that she has come to care for everyone on this base as much as he does, "I'll try and keep my promise."

Letting go of his hand and starting to walk again, "good I'm glad."

With that, they continue on to the mess for breakfast. About ten minutes into their meal, Lorne shows up and the three of them eat together. When they finish, John and Lexi head for their respective quarters to shower and change.

xxxx

A couple of hours later, John finds himself in Carter's office, "Teyla's been having ah, visions, about Kanaan handing her a pendant. She says the pendant in her vision is the same one she gave to Kanaan before he disappeared."

"So what's the significance?" she asks

"Well, uh." and grimacing, "I'm not sure."

"Well, what does she want exactly?"

"Well, she bought it from some guy in a village on M2S-181. She wants to go back and check it out."

"It's a peaceful trading settlement. I'd be very surprised if they had anything to do with the disappearance of the Athosians."

"That's what I said, but she still wants to go. She thinks that Kanaan is sending her a message, a clue."

"And what do you think?"

"Doesn't matter. It's Teyla and we owe her one."

Nodding at him, "ok, but we're stretched pretty thin dealing with this plague."

"I'll try and make it quick." and getting up and heading out of her office, he hits his radio, "Ronon, McKay, Teyla gear up, we head off to M2S-181 in half an hour."

"Got it Sheppard." comes Ronon's reply.

"See you in thirty." comes McKay's annoyed voice.

Finally, he hears Teyla's answer, "thank you John."

xxxx

Half an hour later John, Ronon, Teyla and McKay are all on M2S-181 searching for any signs of the Athosians. While they are there, Keller makes a very interesting discovery and shares it with Lexi, who had stopped by to discuss a patient with her and ended up sticking around for a while to help Keller with her research.

"Wow, would you look at that?" she states, anger evident in every syllable.

Looking up from her tablet and meeting Keller's eyes, "what did you find?" Lexi asks.

"Someone is producing this sucker. It's not naturally occurring."

Taking in a deep breath, knowing that this is a huge discovery, "I'll go tell Sam. I was heading that way anyway."

Smiling, "great. I'll keep checking, but from what we've compiled, I believe that this has something to do with the Hoffans."

Ten minutes later walking into Carter's office, "Sam, Jen has some interesting news on the plague."

Getting up from her desk, "great, I'll head down there now." and coming to stand in front of her, "you gonna join me?"

"Oh no. I've got a couple of appointments. But I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay."

They leave the office. Lexi heading down to her office and Carter heading to the infirmary. As Carter walks into the infirmary, she heads straight for Keller, the words leaving her mouth before she comes to a stop, "hey. I hear you have something."

Getting up, "yeah. I've found out what's making these people sick and it's something we've encountered before."

Leading Carter over to a screen and activating it, "it's a unique protein originally created by the inhabitants of a planet called Hoff. It was designed to interfere with the Wraiths' feeding mechanism, making them immune to the process."

Looking at her, "it also killed the feeding Wraith and half the people who took it."

"That's right."

"So this isn't some contagion that spreads naturally."

"No. This is mass murder."

xxxx

A couple of hours later, John and McKay join Keller and Carter in the conference room having found nothing on the planet they were searching with Teyla. As soon as they returned, Carter called them into this meeting so that Keller could update them on the discovery she made. By the end of the briefing, Carter and John agree that he and McKay need to go back to Hoff to see if there is anything there which can help confirm that the plague is indeed a version of the original Hoffan drug.

While John and McKay are on Hoff, Teyla, who had been meditating in her room, has another vision of Kanaan. Shaken by it, she decides to go tell Carter that she will be going back to M2S-181. Carter acquiesces to her request and even makes sure that she has Major Lorne and his team as an escort.

John and McKay find nothing on Hoff and head back to Atlantis. The two men after walking through the Gate meet up with Ronon and make their way up to the Control room, where they find Carter. They stop at Chuck's console, where Carter is standing. She looks up as they come to a halt in front her, "anything?"

"No. The place is cleared out." John tells her.

McKay, noticing the screen, which has been activated next to them, "is that what I think it is?"

"It's getting to be a familiar sight." Carter says.

"What is it?" Ronon asks.

Carter looks at them, "a Wraith subspace tracking device. It's our old friend."

Realizing who she is talking about, "Todd!" McKay says.

With a small nod, "maybe he wants to talk and maybe he just wants to lead us into an ambush. There is always that possibility."

Sighing and looking at Ronon and McKay, "well, there's only one way to find out." John says.

He and Ronon turn and start to head down to the Gate, "aw, come on! We just got back." McKay says, looking at their backs, frustrated,

"Sorry, Rodney." Carter apologizes.

Turning to head down the stairs as well, "I haven't had lunch yet."

Carter watches him walk away from her for a second, before turning to Chuck, "dial it."

As John, McKay and Ronon head back out to meet with Todd. Major Lorne and Teyla find some interesting information on M2S-181. While they are searching the local market, John, McKay and Ronon meet up with Todd, who wants whatever research Atlantis has on the plague. In return he says he'll give them the name of the person who has been distributing the poison causing the plague. Of course after hearing his deductions they all come to the realization of who is to blame.

They head back to Atlantis and John and McKay, after discarding their off world gear head up to Carter's office to find her in conversation with Keller. The two men take up seats and tell the women what Todd told them and what conclusion it led them to make, about how Michael is to blame for the plague. As they finish the briefing, Lorne's team comes back and informs them that Teyla was captured. John, McKay and Ronon decide to go to Todd for help in finding out where she might be and after waiting for a couple of hours, Todd comes through for them with an address. John, McKay, Ronon and Lorne and his team all gear up and after gating to a planet nearby they get picked up by the Daedalus. They beam down to the planet, John, McKay, and Ronon going one way and Lorne and his team going another. They all engage the guards.

While the teams are battling the guards, Michael's cruiser with Teyla onboard arrives. Of course the Daedalus doesn't know this until John, after interrogating one of the guards in the facility, radios telling them not to destroy the cruiser. Just as the Daedalus is about to try and cripple the cruiser it jumps to hyperspace. Caldwell relays the bad news and John, McKay and Ronon after meeting up with Lorne's team realize that they missed Teyla. However, Lorne makes the observation that the guards were protecting something. John, McKay and Ronon open the door that the last guard they took down was guarding, while Lorne and his men cover them. As they open the door and step inside they stare in disbelief at what they see.

Sitting on a bunk in the cell, Doctor Carson Beckett looks up at the three men as they come in and sighing at the sight of his three friends, "finally. It's about bloody time." and standing up, "what took you so long?"


	22. Chapter 22

**Chap. 22:

* * *

**

Carter and Lexi are sitting in the mess hall enjoying a late cup of coffee when at the same time they look up and listen to the page going out over the city's intercom, "Colonel Carter and Dr. Carter, please report to the Control room."

After waiting for Carter to finish responding to the hail and getting up to follow her to the transporter, "you know something Sam it's not like he can help it."

Looking at her with a lopsided grin on her face, as they get into the transporter, "I know that. It's just that Cam doesn't need any encouragement on that front."

Returning the smile and chuckling, they reach the Control room and they see Amelia Banks waving them over to her console.

"Ah, Colonel, Lexi. The Daedalus just arrived in orbit and Colonel Sheppard asked that you be here when they beam down. He also asked that I have Dr. Keller and a team sent to the observation room. Apparently they found something."

"Did he say what or who that something was?"

"No ma'am. He just said to have them waiting. Dr. McKay will be beaming down to the observation room as well to explain the situation to Dr. Keller." she pauses a moment, placing her hand up to her ear piece, "beaming down now."

In a flash, Ronon, John and Lorne are all standing in the Control room. They all look like they have been in a battle and Lexi can tell that there is definitely an air of shock in the way they are all carrying themselves.

"Colonel, did you find Teyla?" Carter asks.

Shifting uncomfortably and motioning for all of them to go to the conference room, "Sam, we should talk in there."

Falling into step next to him, "all right."

John and Carter lead the way to the conference room. Ronon walking right behind them and Lexi falls into step beside Lorne. She can tell that he has something on his mind, "Evan, what is it?"

Looking at her with grimace, "just wait till the Colonel tells you." and he quickly squeezes her hand before they take up seats in the conference room.

John is seated next to Carter. Ronon is on Carter's right. Lexi sits down on John's left and Lorne takes the seat next to her.

When they are all seated and John is sure that the doors are closed, he takes a deep breath and begins his debrief, "we beamed down to the planet and found a compound of some sort. It was heavily guarded and after taking out the guards and interrogating one of them, I found out that Teyla wasn't there." he takes a breath and puts up a hand to stop Carter from interrupting him, "evidently, Michael was on his way there with her." and gesturing to Lorne, "the Major, suggested that there were too many guards there for it to just be a normal detail. He was right. They were guarding someone."

"John who was it?" Carter asks.

He takes another breath to steady his nerves and after running his hand through his hair, his eyes come to rest on her, "it was Carson."

Looking at the him and then the other two, she can tell that best thing for them right now is to be checked out by the on base doctors and to get some sleep, "okay, I want the three of you to head down to the infirmary and get checked out. That's an order. I know that you probably got checked out on the Daedalus, but I want to hear it from the staff here, that you're okay. And then you're all to go get some sleep. We can figure this out in the morning." and looking at each of them in turn and then at Lexi, "and if you feel the need, I want you to talk to Lexi. Okay, that's all for tonight. I'm going to find Dr. Keller and see what she's got."

Ronon follows Carter out of the room, heading for the infirmary. He doesn't want to, but knows that it is better to follow the order than not to.

Lorne hangs back a second, "ah, sir..."

Drawing his gaze away from the spot on the Control room wall that had been Carter not a moment ago, "yes, Major?"

"I just wanted to apologize, for earlier." he says, looking at Lexi and back at John.

Fixing him with as stern a glare as he can at this moment, "you have nothing to apologize for. It was just bad luck."

Looking down at his hands and back at John, "but sir, I should've known something was up. The guy who was selling the stuff was."

Angrily rubbing his hands over his face, "Major!" he shouts and realizing that Lorne and Lexi are now staring at him with looks of shock, he lowers his voice, "don't worry about it, okay? We just have to get her back now." he says as he looks away from them and looks back out towards the Control room, his eyes not really focusing.

Shooting Lexi a concerned look and getting up, "okay, sir. Lexi I might come by and see you tomorrow."

Seeing the feelings playing across his face and nodding in understanding, "sure, whenever you want to swing by."

Walking out of the room to head for the infirmary, "thanks. Good night sir."

She watches his retreating form and turning her attention to John, she sees that he is leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, rubbing his temples and she can tell that his breathing is coming in short gasps.

Turning in her chair, sliding it closer to him and reaching out a hand for his wrist, "John." she says softly.

He flinches as her hand curls around his wrist, but not opening his eyes he feels her taking his hand away from his forehead. His head is killing him, he's nauseous and if he is certain about anything right now the temperature in the room has just dropped twenty degrees, _what gives?_

Lexi felt him flinch as her fingers curled around his left wrist. Checking his pulse, which is tachy at 120, she gently turns his chair so that he is facing her and releasing his wrist she rests her hands on his legs, feeling the slight tremors that are running through him, as she does so, "John, open your eyes."

When he doesn't answer her or open his eyes, she reaches for her radio. Just as she is about to activate it to call for a med team, his eyes open and focus on her.

Eyeing him, worry twisting her stomach, "we should get you down to the infirmary. Can you walk?"

Focusing on her and seeing the concern that is plastered across her face, "yeah, I can walk." he says and as he stands up the room goes sideways, causing him to quickly sit back down and close his eyes, resting his head against the back of the chair, again. Gritting his teeth to ride out the wave of dizziness, moaning as his stomach also decides to go sideways.

"John, I'm calling a med team. You're in shock." she says, not happy with how he looks or the fact that he almost just toppled right over.

Cracking his eyes open and looking at her, "no." he says, through his gritted teeth.

"But."

Opening his eyes all the way, lifting his head off of the chair, taking a deep breath and finally getting his breathing under control, "I can make it. Just…give me a sec."

Sighing and throwing her hands up in defeat, "fine. You want some help?"

Knowing that she will call for a med team if he doesn't say yes, "yeah, but only till the doors."

"John." she begins to protest, but seeing him standing and swaying in front of her, she reaches for his waist and draping his left arm over her shoulders, "okay."

Slowly but surely, they make it to the doors leading out to the Control room. Lexi feeling him shake the whole way, simply keeps her mouth shut, knowing that being as stubborn as he is, he won't let himself be taken to the infirmary on a stretcher.

He's struggling and he knows it. He can barely keep himself up straight even with her help and the room spinning like a top is making his head pound and his stomach lurch. As they reach the doors, he slowly takes his arm off her shoulders and tries to step away from her but stops short, as he feels her arm still on his waist.

Smiling weakly, "Lexi, I can make it."

She looks up at him and sees the smile. But she also sees the pain in his eyes and it makes her heart hurt. She knows that he needs to do this, so as she takes her arm off of his waist and squeezes his hand, "okay, but I'm gonna be right next to you."

Squeezing back, "I wouldn't have it any other way." and letting go of her hand he puts his right hand on the wall to steady himself and pushing himself off, albeit a little unsteadily he starts towards the infirmary.

They walk side by side to the transporter, glad that the people in the Control room are too engrossed in what they are doing to notice how unsteady he is on his feet.

xxxx

They almost make it to the infirmary doors, but looking over at him she realizes what is going to happen before it does and she has her hand under his head, gently easing him to the ground. In the same moment as his eyes slide shut, she is shouting for help, "Dr. Carter to infirmary, med team to infirmary corridor two!"

Two minutes later, as she is checking his pulse, which is still tachy but is now up to 128 bpm, Marie and Lt. Morgan are by her side with a gurney and a med bag.

"Dr. Carter what happened?" Marie asks, coming up next to her and crouching down.

Keeping her eyes locked on John, "he's in shock," and giving them her orders, "start IV fluids wide open, get that oxygen mask on him and let's get him in there now."

Morgan sets up the IV, while Marie, after handing Lexi her penlight, goes about getting the oxygen mask and cardiac leads situated on John. Lexi, after checking to see that his pupils are reactive, which they are, takes his blood pressure, which is not anywhere close to where it should be.

They finally get him onto the gurney and raising it up, they race into the infirmary not noticing the small group of people that had stopped to see what the whole commotion was.

Ten minutes later, John is in scrubs, covered under blankets and situated in his room. Lexi is standing right outside it, making notes on his chart and relaying orders to Lt. Morgan, when she looks up to see Carter and Keller walking towards her.

"Lexi, what happened? When I left the conference room, he was, well, I wouldn't say fine, but."

Having finished giving her instructions to Lt. Morgan and showing John's chart to Keller, who is now standing next to her, "Sam, he was in shock. It was a delayed reaction." and looking at Keller, "I'm surprised that Rodney's not in here too. Marie told me that Dr. Newman gave Evan some sleeping pills."

Smiling sadly, "oh well, we just came from Rodney's room, I had to sedate him. I think this whole Carson coming back from the dead scenario is affecting them more than they want to admit." Keller says.

Sighing, "yeah, and with Teyla missing I'm sure they all blame themselves. Did Dr. Newman say that Ronon was okay?"

"Yeah, Sam. He said that Ronon was physically fine and one of the medics just came back from his room. He's fast asleep."

"That's Ronon for you." Keller says, walking into the room to check on John for herself.

Taking a seat on one of the nearby stools and looking up at her aunt, "is it really Carson?"

Placing a hand on her shoulder, "it sure looks and sounds like him." and gesturing at Keller who has just reappeared at her side, "Jennifer is going to continue running tests tomorrow and we'll go from there."

"Yes. For now, I have a team in hazmat keeping an eye on him." and motioning towards John's room, "he's up and asking for you."

Getting up, "you're gonna keep him over night, right?"

Shaking her head, "no. His BP's back up, his o2 levels are good and his pulse is back to normal. You can take him back to your quarters."

Smiling, "thanks, Jen."

Returning the smile, "Lexi, it's only because right now with everything that's going on, I don't need to worry about him playing escapee. At least with you, I know he'll get a good nights sleep. Sorry to lay this on you."

"It's not a problem. See you in the morning." and walking into the room, she finds John sitting with his legs dangling off the side of the bed, a sheepish smile on his face, which quickly disappears, as he sees the stern look on her face.

"Aww, come on Lexi." he says, with puppy dog eyes.

"Don't you 'aww, come on Lexi me' with those eyes, right now mister. Do you have any idea how stupid you are? If you'd let me call for a med team in the first place, you wouldn't have passed out." she scolds, coming to stop right in front of him.

He pulls her close to him, wrapping his legs around hers and his hands clasped at the small of her back, "sorry" he says, with a pout and leans in to kiss her.

She pushes him away, but can't get out of his grip, "I'll forgive you only because I understand how unbelievable this whole situation is."

Pulling her into him so that he is hugging her and his chin is resting on her right shoulder, "thanks, I just, you know."

"Yeah, I know." she hugs him tighter and feels him relax in her arms, "you feel like having a late night snack and then gettin some sleep?"

Sighing and trying to hide the yawn that comes out of nowhere, "that sounds great. What did you have in mind?"

Pulling back, so she can look at him with a smile on her face, "well, I've got some turkey sandwiches back in my room."

Smiling and untangling himself from her so that he can stand, "you know I love turkey." and standing up and draping his arm over her shoulder, "let's go, I'm exhausted."

Wrapping her left hand around his waist and looking up at him, as they walk out of the room and out of the infirmary, "you look it and I have a feeling we're in for some interesting times."

"You and your feelings." he says jokingly, as they get into the transporter to take them to the crew quarters.

xxxx

They reach her quarters and as John heads over to fridge to grab the turkey sandwiches and two bottles of water, Lexi takes a seat on the couch and props her feet up on the coffee table. She smiles as he walks over to her.

"What?" he asks, handing her a sandwich and a bottle of water and sitting down next to her he tears into his own sandwich.

"Oh, I just realized something."

"And...that...is?" he asks, around bites of the sandwich.

Taking a swig of her water, "next week will be seven months."

After taking a drink from his own bottle to wash down the half of his sandwich that he's already inhaled, "what will be seven months?"

"Seven...months...that I've been here and that we've been seeing each other." she says, finally swallowing.

Looking at her stunned, "really?"

Standing up to put the rest of her sandwich back in the fridge and coming back over to stand in front of him, "yeah. It's flown by." and noticing that he is starting to drop off, as he is now lounging against the back of the couch, "you ready to get some sleep?"

Shaking himself awake and looking down at his watch and standing up, "yeah, I just want a quick shower."

She leans down to grab the wrapper and his empty water bottle, "great. I'll toss this stuff and get ready for bed."

She walks into the bathroom just as he is sliding out of his boots. Walking over to the sink and starting to brush her teeth, she watches him take his shirt off and strip down to his boxers. As she finishes brushing her teeth, he gets into the shower and after grabbing his gun, she heads back into the room. After leaving it on her desk she also strips down to her underwear and walking over to the dresser, she grabs her pjays and throws them on.

She startles a little as she turns around to see him leaning against the bathroom door frame in his towel and a hurt look on his face, "John, what is it?"

Frowning and speaking in barely a whisper, "it's Elizabeth all over again."

Stunned by the emotion she hears behind the words, she quickly walks over to him and pulling her into her arms, "yeah, I know. But, it's different this time."

Pulling away from her slightly, "how's it different?"

Taking his face in her hands and looking him in the eyes, "I don't know yet, but let's be happy that we might've gotten a second chance." and realizing that he is shivering, "get dressed, before you freeze."

Leaning down and kissing her, "yes, mom."

Smiling as he lets her go, "hey." she says, with a light smack on his arm.

She heads over to the dresser and pulls out a pair of boxers and from the middle draw, she grabs a pair of sweats and t-shirt as well. Walking back over to him, "now be a good boy and put those on. I'll be in bed."

He laughs, as he takes the clothes from her, "thanks." and heading back into the bathroom he changes into them.

After handing him the clothes she heads over to the bed and climbing onto it she gets under the blankets and props herself up on the pillows.

A couple of minutes later shutting off the bathroom lights with a thought, John walks over to the bed and as he reaches it, Lexi holds the blankets up for him and he slides in next to her, turning on his right side and looking at her, "so I was thinking."

She snuggles down in the bed and looking at him with raised eyebrows, "about?"

Instead of responding, he takes her right hand and pulls the ring off of her finger. Then sitting up he pulls her into a sitting position as well and taking her left hand he slips the ring on her ring finger, "it's about time that we acknowledge it. I mean everyone on base already knows." he says, a large smile crossing his tired face.

She smiles back and leaning in and giving him a deep kiss and pulling away, "you're right. Now let's go to sleep before you pass out again."

Laughing and pulling her down into his arms, they both think off their bedside lamps and are asleep within seconds.


	23. Chapter 23

**Chap. 23:**

* * *

McKay is pacing in Lexi's office, in the middle of a rant, "I don't know if putting him in the pod was the right thing to do."

Watching him pace and getting dizzy, "Rodney, sit down, please." and following him with her eyes, as he takes the seat opposite her, "look, you and Jen said that if you didn't put him in there he would have died, right?"

Rubbing his hands through his hair and resting them nervously in his lap, "yeah. The cell degradation was too advanced and if we didn't, Jennifer wouldn't have any time to figure something out."

"Well there you go. Now stop second guessing yourself." and putting up a hand to stall his response, "and I'm gonna help her in whatever way I can. We'll figure this out."

Sighing, "I know, it's just."

"You're worried about Teyla."

Looking at her with a mixed look of confusion and worry, "how did you know?"

Chuckling sadly, "Rodney, I only know because it's my job to know and also because I'm worried as well, everyone is."

Realizing what an interesting position she is in, "oh, right. You're probably getting it from both sides."

"Yeah I am. But not from sides you think."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, you know John and Sam. It's like pulling teeth to get them to admit to how they're feeling. So, the only people I'm really getting anything from are the civilian population. The military side, is following the lead of our two steadfast leaders." she says with a sad smirk.

Standing up and heading for the door, "yep that would be Sam and Sheppard for you. Thanks Lexi, I guess I just needed to hear that I was right."

Getting up and walking with him to the door, "Rodney, you're one of the smartest people I know and Jen is one of the best doctors I've worked with. Carson couldn't have a better team working on the situation." she says, and as the two of them come to a stop in front of the doors, which are now standing open, "in regards to Teyla, I've got a feeling that John and Evan are going to work themselves into the ground, until they find her. At least we've got the Athosians back."

Sighing, "yeah, there is that and you're probably right about Sheppard and Lorne. I don't know if they could blame themselves any more for this whole fiasco then they already do."

Placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, "and you shouldn't blame yourself either."

"Lexi, I don't blame myself."

Smirking, "oh, right, okay. Whatever you say." she says, knowing that, like John and Lorne, he does in fact blame himself, but she isn't about to fight him, "I'm gonna go with that one."

Fixing her with a confused look, "uh, what?"

"Never mind Rodney. I'll see you later."

Still confused, but heading out the door, "yeah, I'll see you later and thanks again."

"No problem," she says, as she watches his disappearing form and then walks back into her office.

xxxx

As she sits down at her desk, she opens her email client and starts sifting through them. Her eyes start to glaze over as she reads through what feels like the hundredth one. Shaking her head to clear it, she leans back and rubs her hands over her face. Crossing her arms over her chest, she starts reflecting on the events that led up to Carson being placed in stasis and the almost rescue that has John, Ronon, McKay, Lorne and the rest of the military contingent on the base searching every corner of the galaxy for Teyla.

She smiles to herself, remembering the previous night when she walked into John's office to find him fast asleep at his desk, reports littering his desk and floor. After gently shaking him awake, she dragged him back to her quarters and put him to bed, against his protests.

As it is, he and Lorne with Lorne's team are off world at this very moment, waiting to meet with a Genii contact. She frowns at this, not because she isn't happy that there might be a lead on Teyla, but because with everything that is going on, she has had to prescribe sleeping aids to half the expedition and never in all her time as a psychiatrist, has she had so many sessions.

She is brought out of her reverie by, "Lexi, come in please."

Tapping her radio, "go ahead, Sam."

"Can you meet me in my office?"

Hearing something in her voice, "Sam is something wrong?"

"Lexi, just come to my office."

Standing up, as the radio link shuts off she heads out to the transporter and makes her way up to Carter's office. As she walks into Control room she doesn't miss McKay and Zelenka bickering about something that she doesn't understand and seeing this the knot in her stomach, that has been slowly growing over the past couple of days, tightens.

xxxx

Carter sees Lexi in the Control room and comes out to meet her, "thanks for coming."

Taking one more worried look at McKay and Zelenka, "yeah, no problem." and falling into step next to Carter, they sit down in the chairs to the right of the door.

Sitting down, "Lexi, Major Lorne came back an hour ago with his team."

Taking a deep breath to steady the nerves that are starting to fray a little and interrupting her, "wasn't John with him?"

"Yes. He was."

Looking down at the ring on her finger and twisting it around with her thumb and looking back up at Carter, "what happened?"

Leaning closer, "we don't know yet. According to Major Lorne, John dialed out to come back a few hours before he did. As soon as he told me this we had Rodney and Radek come up to see if they could find out what happened."

Looking out into the Control room as McKay loudly shouts at Zelenka, "ah. That would be what they're arguing about."

Sighing, "yeah. I have no doubt that they will figure this out, but." and squeezing Lexi's hand, "I just want you to be ready to deal with the fact that he might not be coming back."

Squeezing her hand back and smiling, "I know Sam. But he'll come back, he's still got stuff to do."

Just as Carter is about to reply, she sees McKay and Zelenka walk in the door and nodding to acknowledge them, "Rodney. Radek, what have you got?"

After continuing to bicker for a couple more seconds, "Sam, as of right now, we have no idea."

"That's not true, we have some idea." Radek interrupts.

Huffing angrily, "yes. Yes. We have some idea."

"But Rodney, it's still an idea."

"Yes. It is."

"Well what is it?" Lexi asks, impatiently and seeing the looks of surprise on their faces, "sorry."

"It's okay Lexi, you're right. What's the idea?"

"Sam, we think that in order for this to have happened, something must have happened to the worm hole. But, from what we can tell, so far, there is nothing indicating what that something is." McKay answers.

"Okay, thank you. Keep at it." and as Carter watches the two men leave the office, she turns to face Lexi, "let's go get some coffee."

Getting up and walking next to her out of the office, "I think I'm just gonna go get some sleep."

Reaching the top of the stairs in the Control room, "okay. Sleep well. I'll keep you in the loop."

"Thanks, Sam. You too."

With that, they part ways. Lexi heading to her quarters and Carter for the mess. Lexi swipes her way into her quarters and as she feels the doors shut behind her, the emotions that she has managed to keep from over flowing finally spill over. Shaking with sobs, she climbs up onto the bed and taking Mr. Puddles, she cries herself to sleep.

Waking up the following morning, she doesn't open her eyes right away. Hoping against hope that it is just a bad dream. But, as she rolls over and feels the cold emptiness of the sheets on the left side of the bed, the realness of the situation finally sinks in.

Slowly, she sits up and pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on top of them, her eyes fall on the ring on her left hand, "John, you better come back to me." she says out loud to the room and taking a deep breath, she gets out of bed and gets ready for what she is certain is going to be a very hard day.

As it turns out, the next twelve days pass in a blur as the base is on constant high alert. Not only are they still trying to find Teyla and Michael, but the search for John is going no where and Lexi has to deal with listening to everyone's continued frustration, along with her own fears.

xxxx

John hears holo-McKay calling his name and as he fights his way back to consciousness, glimpses from the past twenty-four hours begin playing through his head. Walking through the Gate to find a deserted and very hot Atlantis. Then meeting holo-McKay and the memory of being told that he has been sent 48,000 years into the future, comes front and center. Only to be replaced with the memory of holo-McKay telling him that the only way he can go back in time and change the time line, will be to walk through a monster sand storm to make it to the stasis room where he will have to spend at least seven hundred years in stasis, so that holo-McKay will have time to find the right sun flare.

Not wanting to open his eyes, hoping that it is all a bad dream, he ignores holo-McKay's voice a little longer and does a mental check of how he's feeling, _exhaustion? Check. Pounding headache? Check. Hungry? Check. Throat dry? _

The last thought makes him want to laugh out loud, but finally his brain latches onto holo-McKay's voice and he opens his eyes, disappointment flooding through him as the fact that it is not a bad dream, hits him like a truck.

But as he hears holo-McKay squat beside him and say, "there you go. You can do it." he groans and rolls over onto his back, pulling down the scarf that is still covering his face, "hello, Rodney."

Holo-McKay stares at him concern on his face, "yeah, I'm still here. Look, I'd help you but I'm, I'm, um."

Realizing what he is getting at, he painfully pulls himself into a sitting position against the wall and asks, "how long was I out?"

"All night! You don't look so good. Maybe we should get you to the stasis chamber as soon as possible."

Wearily looking at him, "agreed." he says, and he closes his eyes for a moment. Before long he hears holo-McKay's voice reaching levels that would have made the real McKay proud.

Forcing his eyes open, "what, Rodney?"

Concern etched on his face, "I've been calling your name for half an hour. You passed out again. We need to hurry."

Pushing himself up on the wall and slowly standing up, "I'm...coming."

As they walk to the stasis room, John realizes that holo-McKay has told him about Carter, Ronon, Teyla and the rest of the exhibition, but not about what Lexi had done as well as what had happened to the real McKay.

"Rodney, what happened to Lexi?" he asks, hoping that she hadn't waited for him, but a small part of him hoping that she had.

Holo-McKay stops short and a look of sadness comes over his face, "she, ah."

"What?"

"John, after your funeral she was the only one who didn't believe that you were really gone. Even after she was assigned back to the SGC, she still held out hope. But I think after burying Sam's empty coffin, she realized that you were really gone and she ended up leaving the SGC. The last time I saw her she had her own private practice in New York."

Taking a deep breath and fixing him with a look, he hopes doesn't show the hurt that he is feeling, "did she ah...did she ever get married?"

"No. I asked her why once and she told me that after losing you and everyone else that we lost, she was happier being alone."

Falling into step with holo-McKay again, "she should've forgotten about me. I'd never want her to be alone."

Sighing, "John, she loved you." and leading him into the stasis room, "I've already prepped the solar panels. You're good to go." and as they reach the stasis pod, he holds out a hand and a panel beside the pod opens, "here. Take the first crystal. I've loaded all the intel we got on Michael after your disappearance, including the address where we found Teyla."

Taking the crystal and turning to face him, "you know, you never told me what happened to you. I mean in the past."

"Oh, you don't wanna hear about that."

"Well, why not? Obviously you survived."

"Only cause I quit."

"Quit what?"

"Atlantis, Stargate Command, the whole thing."

"That doesn't sound like you."

"Yeah, well, we were under new management."

He explains that Richard Woolsey took over as the Atlantis commander and once the IOA stopped the support that Atlantis was giving to the Pegasus galaxy, McKay and Keller went back to Earth. Both taking private jobs and falling in love with each other. After Keller passed away from Michael's plague, McKay decided to put the plan in motion, with Lorne's help, that allowed him to be the hologram that he is now and be there when John came through the Gate. After the explanation, John steps into the stasis pod and after being frozen in it, holo-McKay disappears.

xxxx

Lexi is in the middle of a session with Keller. The two women are talking about nothing in particular, when Keller brings up the subject of John missing, "I was talking with Rodney yesterday and he thinks that he and Zelenka figured out what happened to Colonel Sheppard."

Raising an eyebrow in surprise, "really, what happened?"

Grimacing, "I'm not really sure. He said it had something to do with some sort of astrological phenomena."

"But, if that is the case." Lexi says, before the page coming over their earpieces cuts off the rest of her comment.

"Doctors Keller and Carter report to the Observation room, stat."

They share a look and as Lexi responds back, "Chuck, we're on our way. Carter out." they head out for the Observation room.

Walking onto the Observation deck that looks down into the Isolation room, Keller and Lexi stop short, as on the screens in the room is John and not meaning to, Lexi's breath catches. Carter, who is looking down into the room, watching Marie draw blood from his arm, turns to face them as she hears the intake of breath.

"Jennifer, I need you to run his blood work and check the scans that Marie just took of him."

Coming to stand right next to her, watching John, looking up at the two of them with an annoyed look on his face, "I'll get right on it." she says, as she, turns and hurries out of the room, stopping to squeeze Lexi's arm.

Becoming aware of her surroundings again, as Keller squeezes her arm, she walks over to stand next to Carter at the window and looking down into the room, "can I go down there?"

Drawing her gaze away from John and looking at her, "yeah. I think that would be a good idea. Oh and bring this down to him." she says, handing her a turkey sandwich and a bottle of water.

Taking the sandwich and water and turning to head down to the room, "thanks, Sam."

"Lexi, we're not sure it's him."

"It's him." she says, needing to believe it and walking down the stairs, she takes a deep breath before she approaches the door leading into the Isolation room. Plastering a smile on her face and nodding to the guard that is standing at the door, she waits for the door to open and walking in and putting the sandwich and the water bottle down on the table that is right next to the door, "John..."

He is kissing her before she can get the rest of her words out and as she feels his hands on her back and his lips on hers, she can only smile inwardly, knowing without a doubt that this is her John.

Pulling away from him and smiling wide, a couple of tears escaping her eyes, "I knew you'd come back."

Placing a hand on either side of her face, swiping the tears away with his thumbs and smiling, "I had to keep my promise." and noticing the sandwich and the water on the table behind her, "is that turkey?"

Smiling and picking up the water and sandwich, "it certainly is. Hungry?"

Grabbing the sandwich and tearing open the wrapping, "starving."

They sit down on the two chairs in the room. Leaning forward, one hand resting on his leg, she watches him scarf down the sandwich and water and shooting Carter a look, "John what happened?"

Finishing off the sandwich and water, "well, there was a solar flare that did something with the wormhole at the exact moment that I dialed out. It sent me 48,000 years into the future, where I met McKay."

"Wait. If you went that far into the future."

"Yeah, everyone was dead and buried." and looking her in the eyes, he sees more tears threatening to fall.

"Then how was Rodney there to meet you?"

"It turns out that it was a different time line. Because when I disappeared, the time line changed. At some point in that time line, McKay created a holographic version of himself and figured out that if he found another flare similar to the one that sent me to the future, then he could send me back. I had to stay in stasis for about 700 years extra, give or take, until he found the right one."

Walking into the room, "John, in this future what happened to everyone?" Carter asks.

Sighing and rubbing his hand across the back of his head, "it's a lot to retell."

"That's okay, tell us as much as you can."

Looking from her to Lexi and back again, "when they couldn't find me, I was declared KIA. McKay told me that once I went missing, everything went down hill. They found Teyla, but it was too late. She had had her baby and Michael took the child for himself and killed her."

Standing up and starting to pace, "Sam, you were given the Phoenix, which wasn't completely ready. So you and Rodney completed it. Michael let slip some intel and you left Lorne in control of Atlantis."

"Wait. So Sam went up against Michael on her own?"

"Yeah, Lexi. Unfortunately, the intel led you" inclining his head to Carter and coming back and sitting on the chair, "into a trap. You were able to get the crew off but the transporters went down. You rammed the Phoenix into a Wraith cruiser taking three cruisers with you."

"And Ronon?" Carter asks.

John is watching Lexi and seeing the tears rolling down her cheeks, he takes her hand and squeezing it in comfort, "well he left the base and after training his own group of men, they went on a raid of a Wraith facility. He ran into Todd and they sacrificed themselves to take out the facility."

Watching John, as he finishes speaking and seeing the exhaustion setting in, "John, we can continue this later. You should get some sleep."

Looking up at her angrily, "no Sam! I have to go get Teyla. I already told you."

Realizing that she isn't going to win this argument she decides to ask him to finish telling them about the other reality, so that Keller can have time to run the tests and McKay can check up on the sensors for the flare, "okay, fine. What happened to everyone else?"

He feels Lexi squeeze his hand and taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, "well, the IOA put Woolsey in charge of Atlantis and they cut back the aid that we were giving to the Pegasus galaxy. Rodney and Keller couldn't handle it, so they went back to Earth and left the SGC for good."

Carter takes in a deep calming breath and looking from her second in command to her niece, "all right, that's good enough for now. I'm gonna go see if Jennifer has anything yet. Um, Lexi can I have a word with you outside?"

Standing, she follows Carter out of the room and as the doors close behind her, "Sam, what is it?"

"Stay with him and see if you can get him to get some sleep. He looks like he's running on fumes."

Smiling, "I know. I'll see what I can do. But I doubt that he will."

"Just try your best. I'll be back as soon as Jennifer and Rodney have something."

Carter turns and heads for the infirmary. Lexi watches her retreating back and then goes back into the room.

John smiles as he sees her walk back into the room, but it quickly falters as he sees the look on her face, "Lexi, what wrong?"

Moving the chair next to his and sitting down with her feet curled up under her, "you told us about everyone else, but..."

Pulling her close to him, so that her head is now on his shoulder and his arms are around her, "you want to know what you did?"

Looking up into his eyes, she sees the pain in them and her breath catches, "yeah."

Kissing her forehead and sighing, "you never gave up on me. But you left the SGC and moved to New York to start your own practice."

Wrapping her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder again, "thank you for coming back to me." she says, and as she feels him rest his head on hers and his body relax a little, "I know you said no, but you should really try to get some sleep. It might be a while until Jen and Rodney come up with something."

"I can't." and sighing, "I know that they're only following protocol, but I really wish they'd hurry up."

Lifting her head up again, "okay, if you won't sleep. Will you at least tell me how you're feeling?" she asks, not having missed the tightness around his eyes.

"I'm good." he says, not meeting her eyes.

Frowning, "did they give you anything for the headache?"

Matching the frown, "how'd you know?"

"You're eyes and that doesn't answer my question. Did they give you anything?"

Meeting her stare, "no. They didn't."

Smiling, "all right. How about I go and get you some Tylenol and see what's going on?"

Returning her smile, "that'd be great."

Getting up, "okay, I'll be back as soon as I can."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chap. 24:

* * *

**

John watches her walk out of the Isolation room and with another sigh he rubs his hands over his face as he feels the exhaustion starting to pull at him, again.

_It would be so easy to just lie down and sleep for the next three days_ and letting his eyes close for just a second, _wake up John! You can't sleep. You have to get to Teyla, now._ and forcing his eyes open, he gets up and starts pacing, as the feeling of being trapped like a caged tiger, overrides the exhaustion he is feeling. However, a couple of minutes later, he stops short as he hears the doors open, revealing Carter.

As she walks into the room he starts to pace again and looking at her, "we don't have time for this."

Coming to a stop a few feet from him and watching him pace, "John, there are procedures we have to follow. You know that."

Stopping and looking at her, "I am not a clone. Is that what you're worried about?" he asks her, resuming his pacing.

"No, your medical came back clean, telomeres and all. But there are other things we need to discuss. I mean, you have to admit, this is a pretty wild story, even for this place."

Again he stops to look at her, waving his arms in her direction, "but that's my whole point. How could I make this up?"

They look up, as McKay's voice comes over the radio from the Control room, "Sam. Believe it or not, I found it. It was in the sensor log. It's a solar flare capable of interfering with the wormhole from M4S-587 at exactly the moment that Lorne says he dialed."

Looking at John and speaking over the radio, "well, why didn't the Gate's fail safe prevent the wormhole from locking?"

Shifting uncomfortably, "umm, well, we've had a number of glitches since we, uh, last updated the operating system."

Looking up at the ceiling, annoyance written across his face, "oh, that's what you call a "glitch," huh?" John asks.

Looking at Chuck and still speaking over his radio, "yes, well, you should know that, uh, I'll be giving Zelenka a stern talking to." McKay answers.

Fixing Carter with a pleading look and placing his hands on his hips, "can we go now?"

Nodding at him, she follows him out of the doors. As they come to a stop outside the transporter, the doors open to reveal Lexi standing there, Tylenol and a bottle of water in hand.

"I see everything's a go then?" she asks, as she hands him the Tylenol and the water and the three of them get back into the transporter.

"Yeah." John says, as he taps the screen to take them to the locker room and downs the Tylenol.

They get out of the transporter and walk into the locker room to see Lorne, his men and a team of marines gearing up. Lorne nods to John, as he walks over to his locker. Lexi and Carter wait outside, until the all clear is called and Lorne, his men, and the marines, walk out.

"Major, be careful."

"We will be Colonel." Lorne says, as he walks to the transporter with the group.

"Evan, good luck." Lexi says, as she watches him step into the transporter.

He smiles and nods at her as the doors shut.

Carter and Lexi walk in and head right over to where John is pulling on his TAC vest and hooking his P-90 to it.

"John, you sure you're up for this?" Carter asks.

Glaring at her as he straps his side arm around his leg, "it's Teyla, Sam. I'm not sitting this one out."

Knowing that look, as she has often had it and turning to leave, "all right. But, be careful." and as she walks out the door, "bring her home. I'll be in the Control room."

He watches her retreating figure and looking over at Lexi, "hey you, you okay?"

She walks up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and running her fingers through the hair on the back of his neck, she looks him in the eye, "keep your promise." she says and she kisses him hard and as she pulls away, "be safe, I love you."

He leans closer and kissing her on the forehead, "I'll try and I love you too."

They walk up to the Gate room and Lexi continues on to the Control room to watch from the top of the stairs with Carter. They watch as McKay and Ronon walk up to stand next to John, McKay saying something to him and then John shouts, "let's go!" and they head through the Gate.

As the Gate shuts down, Lexi looks over at Carter, "Sam."

"Lexi, it'll be fine." she says, putting her arm around Lexi's shoulders and hugging.

Lexi rests her head on Carter's shoulder, "you're right. Gotta be positive. Feel like sparring?"

Laughing, "yeah, why not?"

xxxx

After coming through the Gate, the teams advance to the building where the future Lorne, McKay and Ronon found Teyla. Lorne and his team, accompanied by McKay, split up from John, Ronon and two marines and head down a separate corridor.

John, Ronon and the two marines advance further into the building. They come to a stop and John motions for the two marines to patrol on their own, while he and Ronon continue on the route they are traveling. A few corridors down, Lorne, his team and McKay find a door and they open it.

McKay is just about to step into the room, when his radio crackles to life and he hears John ask, "Rodney, you got anything?"

Walking into the room followed by Lorne and the others, "hold on." and as he gets further into the room he sees a Wraith device hooked up to a TV screen, "yeah. Yeah, I've got some kind of a data terminal. Let me see if I can power it up and hack in."

As McKay gets to work, John and Ronon reach the room where Teyla's body was found in the future and as John looks at it, "this is it. This is where they found her."

"How do you know?" Ronon asks.

"Cause he described it to me."

Growling, Ronon races to the doorway aiming his blaster into the room. John joins him and they walk in, Ronon raising and lowering his blaster, John slowly following and looking down at the spot where Teyla's body was in the future. Ronon walks over to a table on his right, "hey." he says, as he picks up a horrible looking knife and showing it to John, "look at this."

Back in the other room, McKay has his hands literally full of Wraith tech, when over his radio he hears John, "McKay, we've got something."

Still focusing on the wraith tech, "What is it?"

"Some twisted version of a maternity ward." and looking at something that is the Wraith equivalent of an incubator, "I think we're too early, though. But he's gonna bring her here to have the baby."

Standing up a little, "hold on. I'm in." McKay says, and pulling his hands out of the console and looking at the TV screen as information appears on it, "whoa! Jackpot!"

"What've you got?" John asks over the radio.

McKay excitedly reads the information on the screen, "I've got everything! I've got Gate addresses, I've got sub-space communication codes. I've even got his research into the hybrids!" and turning around with a smile at Lorne, "he's history!"

As he finishes speaking, he turns back to the screen and he sees it go black for a moment and then a single symbol appears. He quickly realizes that something is wrong, "no-no. No-no-no-no-no. What happened?" he asks as he watches the symbols and sees that they are a countdown.

Seeing the countdown and pointing at the screen, "what's that?" Lorne asks.

"Oh no." McKay says.

Hearing the worry in McKay's voice, "doc?"

McKay turns to him, fear plastered across his face, "it's a countdown!"

Meanwhile, John and Ronon look up at the sound of an explosion and from the other room, Lorne screams into is radio, "Colonel, it's a booby trap!" and feeling the building shake, "we've gotta get out of here now!"

Lorne runs to the door, McKay following, only to be stopped short by part of the ceiling crashing down and blocking their way. In the room where John and Ronon are, a large support falls from the ceiling and nearly hits them. As they race out of the room they get stuck as more ceiling falls around them. Meanwhile, McKay, Lorne and his team are stuck as well, as the debris starts raining down on them. They're all stuck and in bad shape, as the building comes down completely around them, in fire and ruble.

xxxx

Back on Atlantis, Lexi and Carter spar and after they shower in the locker room, they head to the mess to have a bite to eat. They walk into the large room to find Keller sitting with Doctor Engle, having an animated conversation. They carry their trays over to them and take a seat.

"So Jamie, how're things going?" Lexi asks through bites of food.

"They're going well. I was just telling Jennifer about an interesting plant that we found on M1G-098. It looks like it might have some excellent healing abilities."

Sitting back in her chair and taking a sip of her coffee, "yes, they do seem rather impressive." and looking at Carter across the table, "Sam, I was hoping to bring a large quantity back to test."

"Sure, you and Jamie can head off world in a couple of days to get some and bring it back. Radio me tomorrow and I'll put it on the off world schedule."

"Thank you Colonel. I'll be sure to do that." Doctor Engle says and looking at Lexi, "Lexi I was wondering, if I could talk to you?"

Finishing off her tea, "sure, you wanna talk now?"

Smiling and getting up from the table, "that would be great."

Getting up too, "Sam, Jen I'll see you later." she says and falling into step with Doctor Engle, they head for her office, chatting about nothing in particular. Carter and Keller each finish their own meals and head for their respective offices.

Reaching her office, Lexi and Doctor Engle take up seats in the arm chairs and after a brief moments pause, as they get comfortable, Lexi smiles, "so what did you wanna talk about?"

Feeling a little awkward and offering up a small smile of her own, "um. Well. I don't really know where to start."

"Jamie, does this have anything to do with Evan?"

Looking at her, shock spreading across her features, "Ho...how did you know?" and looking down at her twisting hands, "um, yeah. I just wanted to know, well you know, if you and he were, um..."

Scooting to the edge of her chair, "Jamie, look at me," and waiting until she does so, "we are just friends. Evan and I love each other..."

"You love each other?" she asks, a mix of anger and disappointment evident on her face.

"Please let me finish. Yes we love each other, but as nothing more than best friends. He's like a brother to me, nothing more."

Relief spreading across her face, "nothing more?"

Smiling, "Jamie," and making a point to show her the ring on her left finger, "you see this? Colonel Sheppard gave it to me. Didn't you know that we're seeing each other?"

Sheepishly smiling, "yeah. I knew. It's just that Evan always talks about you. It's always Lexi this and Lexi that."

"Oh..."

"Yes. Oh. I really like him and if he still has feelings for you, well then..."

Placing a hand on hers, "I promise you Jamie. I am in love with the Colonel and from what I've seen, Evan is in love with you. I shouldn't really be telling you this, but seeing as he never talks to me, as anything other than a friend, it's okay. He's always talking about you, when we're together." she says, watching the tension ease from Doctor Engle as she tells her this and gently squeezing her hand, "so are we good?"

"Yes." and standing up to leave, "thank you Lexi. I guess I just get nervous when he's off world."

Laughing and walking with her out of the office, as she wants a coffee before coming back to her office to do some research, "tell me about it. At least, he's not always getting into trouble."

Laughing as well, "that is true. The Colonel and his team do always seem to find trouble when they go off world. I just hope that they're all okay this time out."

Stopping to swipe the transporter doors open, "me too." Lexi says.

Although as they get into the transporter, the feeling of dread that she hasn't been able to shake since John, Lorne and the rest of the team stepped through the Gate, flares again and she hopes with all her heart that it is just a feeling.


End file.
